Feral Dreams
by Wharehouse
Summary: Naruto is trapped, tortured and losing his mind. Why did he sacrifice himself? Can Neji, Sasuke and Hinata make it in time to save him, or will they lose the Naruto they know forever?
1. A promise

Seconds felt like minutes, minutes like hours, hours like days, days like weeks. Everything he could feel gave him no further information about his predicament than the pain it caused. He wasn't even certain how long it had been since they had put him in this godforsaken box. For what felt like months they had tortured him while forcing him to stay awake and keeping him alive on liquefied soldier pills that were poured through a tube up his nose.

He wasn't conscious when they had brought him in, but after he regained consciousness for the first time he was able to see his very limited surroundings. He was in what appeared to be a vertical metal coffin, bound by the shoulders, waist and thighs to the back wall of the box so that he couldn't struggle. His elbows and knees were constantly being crushed in barbed vices so that even when they loosened them slightly to allow his regeneration to work, the barbs would rip and shred his muscle tissue while still binding him in place. A high voltage electrical current would emit at random intervals through his bindings between every six seconds and six minutes to ensure he never slept. The front of the coffin was less than four inches from his face and had a blisteringly bright light in front of his eyes. He also knew that there were small holes throughout the structure and that there was a speaker somewhere since sometimes he would be poked and prodded with hot pokers or electrodes while being asked questions he didn't even understand. And to top everything off, something in the construction of the box was sucking away his chakra so that it could never flare, as well he believed, his chakra was being used to power to box itself.

Since the moment he woke up that day, this box and the pain and suffering that it seemed to represent had been his life, he never doubted the choice he made, but the consequences were too severe. He shuddered to think what would have happened if any of the girls had been taken instead of himself, none of them would have made it this far and likely much worse would have happened. When they asked him questions he had answered as much as he could, but most of the things they kept asking him had nothing to do with him or his missions, When he couldn't answer their questions, they would post men to continuously alter the stress level on the vices.

He was losing it in his isolation, his blood shot eyes twitched back and forth, having completely lost any semblance of their previous self. All he could do to keep from snapping was rub his thumb over the ring on his left index finger. Why?! Why the hell... I just wanted to help them, I just wanted to protect them!

******************************************** 3 WEEKS EARLIER********************************************

"So Sakura-chan, all we gotta do is find those guys, beat them up and head back to Konoha right?" The blonde stated more than asked with a grin plastered on his face from ear to ear.

She sighed, rubbing her eyes in exasperation and taking the time to brush a lock of pink hair from her eyes before answering him for the seventh time,. "No Naruto, and you know that already. This is a direct request from the Kazekage to Konoha. Several extremist shinobi from the River country kidnapped two of the Sands best poison makers. We need to get them back as soon as possible but have to watch out since they'll probably have forced the two of them so supply them with some of the Sand's most potent poisons."

"It's okay, we have you after all." He said bluntly, earning him a blush and a smack behind the head from his lightly embarrassed teammate.

"I may be able to neutralize their poisons, but if you run ahead like you usually do, I might not be able to get to you in time. Now, I don't want to hear you complain anymore, let's just wait for the others to get here and then we'll start our preparations."

She watched as Naruto huffed and walked off near the entrance of the cave where the six of them would be making camp tonight. He'd changed a lot since Jiraya had been killed two years back, everyone had... and so had the world. With the death of more than half their members and the major damage done by Jiraya in his final battle, the Akatsuki's plans had been delayed several more years. Additionally, his battle sparked the beginning of the third great shinobi war and it was still going strong. Now they were on a mission in enemy territory, in order to kill missing nins from an allied country, and to top it all off two among them had blood limits making them even bigger targets.

She shook the morbid topic from her thoughts and looked up again to see him silhouetted by the dying rays of the early autumn sun, "Naruto, striking a pose in the sunset will not make them come any faster, that would only work with Lee-sans team."

Caught off guard by the sudden crack, he burst out laughing, "Yeah, I can so see both of them jumping out of the sunset screaming 'POWER OF YOUTH!!!!' with Neji and Ten Ten grumbling behind."

Catching herself up in the roll of the joke, they laughed and passed ideas back and forth until they came to the mental image of both Lee and Gai bursting out of the ocean wearing green tutus.

Enjoying the time in each others company, they talked about the upcoming Chuunin exams and whether there would be any promising Genins this year. Naruto had still not taken the exams a second time, but Tsunade had removed the restrictions for his missions so that he could freely be given any level or type. This was great for him since he had decided that he did not need to gain the levels normally, he would simply move from Genin to Hokage when the time was right. The subject danced around while they willed away the hours, they had plenty of time to kill since the others weren't supposed to arrive until near midnight.

At half past eleven Naruto perked up, interrupting the current topic of vegetables being inferior to ramen, "They're finally here, thank god I was getting tired of waiting."

Confused, Sakura looked to the complicated sequence of seals inscribed on the back of her glove, "What are you talking about, no one's set off any of my perimeter seals?"

Naruto just grinned, "Please, I can feel that bastard coming a mile away!"

No sooner had Naruto finished speaking, that a red eye became visible at the cave mouth, "Of course! Peasants can always feel the presence of a king approaching. Besides, anyone can smell you from TWO miles away" Sasuke's taunting voice was heard loud and clear.

"Ha, I guess they would, wouldn't they? That soap I picked up from Ino's shop has a really strong smell." Sasuke and Sakura just sighed, deciding it was the better part of valor to not bother explaining to him that he had just been insulted, that was tantamount to soaking yourself in deer's blood then running in circles around several starving lions.

"Anyway, the others will be here in a few minutes, they're just setting their own traps before coming in." Sasuke said in a bored tone before dropping his pack in a corner then sitting down in front of the two of them.

They'd all changed in the two years since Naruto returned, but when Sasuke crawled back through the gates just under a year ago, he returned a scarred man. Neither of them knew what had happened to Sasuke during that missing year, the only people who did were Tsunade and Sasuke himself. What they did know however was that he returned blind in his right eye and that he had to take more than a dozen pills every day to keep himself alive. Apparently three years of extensive experimentation and drug usage had done almost irreversible damage to his body.

Sasuke had grown tall and sleek, but Orochimaru's experiments had left him with a sickly pale skin that he covered from sight as much as possible. His solid black ninja suit came up to just under his chin showing only his face while the suits only change in color was the small Uchiha insignias on the back of each hand. His hair had grown long and unkempt such that it fell all around his head, tracing his shoulders and he wore his headband over his right eye to cover the murky white and useless organ. Kakashi frequently taunted him about stealing his style which was usually responded to with a quick strike to the solar plexus.

Sakura, now the shortest of the three, had begun to take after her master in more of her mannerisms. She had turned 18 three months prior and there was hardly a day gone by where she hadn`t had at least a cup or two of sake, she never really got drunk, she had just grown to like the taste. As for her outward appearance, she could be compared unto a china doll; Slim, beautiful, slightly longer than shoulder length hair, well kept and with a very lithe and lady-like appearance. However the boys knew that one wrong move and that china doll becomes Satan with super strength, thankfully over time they had learned what lines they could cross and what lines they couldn`t. Sakura still wore the same kind of fitted red work suit that she had through her training, though now she had it set with around a dozen hidden pockets where she could freely store necessary components for some of her treatments and more complex jutsu.

Naruto, now almost a head taller than Sakura but still a little shorter than Sasuke, had physically changed very little. Other than a slightly more muscular physique and a bit of growth, he was still the same Naruto with his spiky hair, blue eyes and whiskers. Unlike his appearance, his wardrobe had changed somewhat, after Jiraya died, Tsunade had found a small box of mementos and various other things that the old sage had set aside for Naruto in the event of his death. One of these such items was a full length western style black duster with his spiral insignia emblazoned on the back, apparently he had had it custom made for Naruto a short while before his death. The duster was lined with a mesh of some kind of flexible metal that they had yet to identify, but this didn`t matter to Naruto, he wore the jacket all the time as a memento of his master... and it didn't hurt that most thrown weapons bounced off of it.

"So who did granny decide would be our group's replacement? It's irritating since Shino would have been really useful for this mission." Naruto inquired with a distinct note of curiosity in his voice.

"Here's a hint, she really likes knives... really likes them.", Sasuke teased with a taunting grin.

"Wicked, I'm sure she'll be useful for the mission... I haven't seen Ten Ten in ages though, hasn't she been off on a mission for the last two months?"

"Four actually." Came Ten Ten's sing song voice from behind them, "I barely had time to shower and greet my parents before the Godaime showed up and shoved me off again." There was a hint of bitterness to her voice but her smile was still genuine.

"Ten Ten!" Naruto hoped up onto his feet and rushed over to her where she quickly found herself swept up into a rather bone-crushing hug. After an uncomfortable moment for her, but rather entertaining moment for the other two onlookers, she was dropped back onto her feet. It was only now that Naruto really managed to get a good look at her, she looked odd, but he couldn't put his finger on it was. He ran his mind through a mental checklist as he looked her up and down for a moment.

"Hmm, let's see," He thought to himself, "Her usual white robes are dark green, but that may be due to the mission being in the forest. She has enough weapons hidden on her to take down a small army, plus she has her summoning scroll. Her hair is still in the usual two..." His mind did a halt as he realized that she seemed to be missing the parts for her signature hairstyle. Her hair was now brought together into a single braid going down her back to the middle of her shoulder blades.

Sasuke was amused as he saw the look of realization slowly glaze over Naruto's face. In fact it was quite similar to the way Hinata's face had looked when she noticed the new hairdo for the first time, but at least she had the decency to close her mouth after the first few moments of gawking. Sakura looked back and forth between the three of them for a few seconds before the new change became apparent to her as well.

"Ten Ten! Your odango... has Neji seen..." Sakura was cut off as the tall brunet lunged over the gap between them, tackling her to the ground and cupping a hand over her mouth.

"Almost no one has seen my hair yet so don't worry about it." She said while keeping her hand firmly clasped over Sakura's mouth. "Come with me for a minute Sakura, we need to discuss a few things." She snapped a piercing glare onto the two boys watching the strange sequence of events, "You two, out, now. This is girl talk, now move!"

Her voice wasn't loud, but they understood the level of threat in her tone, so Naruto and Sasuke quickly stood up and vacated the cave. After having moved outside to relative safety, Sasuke casually asked to no one in particular, "Do you suppose that she's still trying to hide from us the fact that Neji and her are dating? Or is she just not wanting Hinata to find out?"

"Beats me, what do you think Hinata-chan?" Naruto turned to face the elegant black haired woman who was standing partially hidden behind a large willow tree. She let out a light squeaking sound when she realized that she had been noticed, and a crimson tint came to her face.

"N-N-Neji actually told m-me about their re-relationship last month. so I d-don't think there's anything t-to worry about. she just doesn't realize that w-we all know."

"... Hinata, you know you can come over here to talk to us right? You don't need to stay behind the tree. I'd just recommend not going into the cave for a few more minutes." Naruto held out an open hand towards the trembling Hyuga, a lopsided grin playing on his face. "I swear we don't bite much." He closed his eyes grinning like an idiot, meanwhile she turned several shades darker at his casual joke.

"Come on dumb ass." Sasuke smacked Naruto upside the head as he walked off into the forest to search for the last member of their team, an amused hint of a smile in the corner of his lips, "She's obviously petrified of going near you, look how red she is?"

"B-b-b-b, um, ano, e, ano, I, um, e to, d-d-d..." In her haste and embarrassment, she seemed unable to string two real words together, let alone any kind of rebuttal. Sasuke disappeared into the forest leaving the two of them alone causing her to turn the shade of a boiled lobster, shortly before her eyes rolled back into her head and fainted face first onto the semi rocky ground.

Naruto quickly ran over to Hinata's bright red but very still form and hoisted her up to see if she was okay. With a sigh, he was relieved to see that other than her being passed out, nothing really seemed to be wrong. He pulled her up off the ground and carried her over to the cave mouth where there was some thick moss that they could at least comfortably sit on. He thought for a moment about taking her inside, but he really didn't feel like running away from shuriken at the moment.

After lying her down on the moss and and taking a seat beside her, he checked her over to make sure she was unhurt, and thankfully other than a shallow cut on her cheek she seemed fine. He found it odd that whenever he looked at Hinata he always wondered how someone could look so much like a porcelain doll. Now that her skin tone had returned to normal, he could see her pale cream skin making her even paler half-open eyes seem very deep. Her long obsidian hair was splayed in a sunburst pattern around her head, what could he say, she looked really cute when she was asleep.

He leaned back against the rocked deciding to relax until either the rest of them showed up or until the sleeping Hyuga woke up, either way he figured he had a few minutes for a cat nap. As his eyes closed in the late night darkness and he began to relax, he started to hear a rustling coming from his left, damn he hated being wrong.

He cracked open his eye a fraction and saw Kiba, minus one Akamaru, walking around the other side of the cave. Naruto twitched his hand in a half wave, drawing Kiba's attention, "Yo dog boy."

'What'd you say you brat!" Kiba rushed at him tackling him from the side. It was intended as more of a playful tackle, but what he hadn't noticed was the unconscious Hinata lying down beside Naruto. What he wasn't expecting even more was when Naruto rolled with the blow, putting both his hands down behind the prone Hinata, and pivoting both himself and Kiba over and slamming back down on the ground, with the unfortunate dog boy on the bottom.

Naruto stood up from the winded Kiba with a shit-eating grin plastered on his face, "Maybe next time puppy." He turned back towards where he had been sitting just in time to see one of his least favorite objects in the world, Sakura's fist... aimed at him... this was going to suck... WHAM!!!!

The impact was always jarring, if it weren't him, bones would snap, blood would fly, death would basically be inevitable. As it was he had a mouth full of dirt and rock and he had a fractured skull, he was only occasionally as glad as he was that the nine tails chakra would mend those wounds in a minute or two. Dragging himself to his feet he noticed a slight indentation in the rocks beneath him, apparently she had hit him down instead of away, no wonder his face hurt so much.

Sakura grabbed Naruto by the collar, lifting him off the ground, "What are you, stupid? We're in enemy territory and you go around yelling and screaming possibly giving away our position?!" His head really hurt at the moment so he was having trouble focusing, he did however notice that Kiba has taken the better part of valor and slipped off back into the forest, he could also see a slightly confused looking Ten Ten over Sakura's shoulder.

"Ugh! I'd say you know it wasn't my fault, but you never believe me anyways." Naruto raised his hands and lightly placed them on the back of Sakura's wrists, immediately her hands snapped open dropping him back to the ground. Dusting himself off, he put a hand to his forehead to check if the bleeding had stopped, "Come on Sakura, you know it's a bad idea to try and grapple me like that, besides, I was actually innocent this time." He winced pulling back his hand from his head, the bleeding had stopped but his head still hurt.

Sakura just grumbled in response while shaking her currently limp wrists in an attempt to regain feeling. Ten Ten however was completely confused, one moment Sakura is about to throttle Naruto, the next she's on the ground and can't close her fists. "What'd you do to her Naruto?" Her voice both angry and surprised.

"Ano" Everyone's eyes snapped to Hinata who had apparently woken up in the commotion and was sitting up against the rocks, "H-he used Shinkei Hari no Jutsu, it's something he w-was working on with Neji-san."

Naruto quirked a curious eyebrow, "Hey Hinata, how did you know what it was called? I asked Neji not to tell anyone about it."

On this response her face immediately flushed and she began to panic, stuttering even worse than before, "I, he, N-N-N-Neji s-s-said no-nothing! J-j-just the b-b-b, my eyes c-c-can s-see through w-w-walls." Embarrassment and panic were reaching their peak, she wasn't certain she was going to be able to stay conscious much longer.

In an instant he was in front of her, dozens of thoughts tore through her mind escalating the panic even more, "Oh god, is he angry? Does he hate me since I know? Is he about to use it on me?" In her panic she began to flail her arms in his direction turning her head away, she would have screamed too if her throat wasn't crushing itself in her embarrassment.

Two hands placed themselves firmly on either side of her head and slowly turned it back to face Naruto, however the thumbs from the hands were holding her eyes shut. Hinata's confusion began to take over her panic, then after her head was facing it's original direction, she felt something press up against her forehead. A calm soothing voice came, it was right in front of her no more than a few inches away, "Relax Hinata, I'm not angry at you, I was just confused as to how you knew about the jutsu."

Her face deepened it's flush at the recognition of how close he was, but she did at least calm down a bit, however she found it very odd that he was holding her eyes shut, "Ano, Naruto-kun?"

"I'm pretty certain that would be my name, yeah." Somehow, she could feel him grinning even though she couldn't see it.

"Um, why are you holding my eyes shut?" She unconsciously put her hands in her lap and began to tap her index fingers together in worry that she had once again done something wrong.

"Isn't it obvious Hinata?"

"Ano, no." She could hear Ten Ten and Sakura laugh at her response, not a vindictive laugh, just an amused one. In her anxiety she began tapping her finger tips together even faster.

"Well, any time I've ever been this close to you you've passed out, so I figured maybe if

you couldn't see me it wouldn't happen." He could suddenly feel the temperature of her face rising drastically but he prayed that she wouldn't pass out again. In hopes of keeping her conscious, he quickly jumped back to the previous topic, "So how did you know about the Shinkei Hari? I'm not angry so don't worry, I just wanted to know if you knew how it worked. Also, can I let go of you without you passing out or panicking again?" He felt her nod against him, he was glad, not that he minded being in close proximity to her, but it was a little hard to keep his cool when he had his forehead pressed against hers.

She felt the pressure be pulled from her forehead and the hands removed allowing her to open her eyes again. Naruto and Ten Ten were sitting down on the ground a few feet away, but apparently Sakura had gone back into the cave to tend to her wrists. She took a deep breath then started to explain how she found out about.

"I was going to the dojo on our grounds when I heard you sparring with Neji-san, I didn't want to interrupt the match so I stayed outside and watched using my byakugan. I heard the two of you discussing chakra spikes and agree to work on something the next day. Sorry Naruto-kun, my curiosity made me come back." She bowed her head so that her nose touched the ground, tears welled in the corners of her eyes.

"Come on Hinata, get up, I told you I'm not angry."

"N-n-no Naruto-kun, I watched your special training, I shouldn't have." Her voice was cracking as her panic began to rise again.

Naruto walked over so that his feet were right in front of her head on the ground, then crouched down and tapped the back of her head, "Didn't I just finish saying that I wasn't angry?" He paused a moment to see if there would be a reaction, when there wasn't, he continued, "I'll tell you what," His tone changed to one of obviously fake outrage, "I am so angry that I need to exact my revenge against you for finding out one of my secrets."

Unfortunately for her, Hinata didn't seem to notice the obvious sarcasm in his voice and began to shake lightly. She suddenly felt the pressure of his hand on the back of her head, the feeling of his probing and mussing through her hair caused fear she wasn't expecting. Suddenly there was a quick, sharp pain at the back of her head, then nothing.

"And now I have exacted my revenge for all wrong-doings." He announced, holding up a single long black hair. He grinned down at her heavily confused and tear streaked face as she looked up to him inquisitively. He took the hair and wrapped it around his left index finger until there was a thin black ring of hair around his finger. Then after tucking the stray end of the hair away, he answered her increasingly confused look, "So now that all costs have been paid in full, as long as I have this ring, you'll be forgiven for anything you do. Fair?" He questioned, bringing the same hand forward to cup the side as he used his other hand to wipe away her tears.

Ten Ten looked on at the adorable and highly amusing scene as all that Hinata could do was stare at him, she seemed completely frozen in time.

"Good." He stood completely and offered Hinata his hand.

She just stared blankly at the hand being offered her and the black ring around his index finger. She tried to compile her thoughts into something coherent, but everything just seemed to jumble together in a wave of happiness, he forgave her for her faults, he was keeping something of hers, then everything went black again.

Naruto just grumbled as Ten Ten stifled her laughter as much as possible, "Well at least she didn't fall while standing this time."

Together they moved her back to the moss so that they could wait for Kiba to get the nerve to come back, they weren't sure where Sasuke was, but it was likely that he had just been watching from somewhere else.

"So since she never really got to explain it, what is that Shinkei Hari thing?" Ten Ten inquired.

"Hahaha, yeah I guess she never did get to that part, well since you know and Neji will probably tell you eventually anyway," He casually looked the opposite direction as he was certain Ten Ten would blush from his statement. "Essentially it's like one of the Jyukken paralysis attacks."

"But that doesn't make any sense, how could you use it then?" She asked, obviously perplexed as to how someone without the Byakkugan could perform a Jyukken maneuver.

"I said it was like the Jyukken, not that it was the Jyukken. To put it to the simplest definition, I insert several chakra spikes into the desired location and detonate them. When they break they disrupt the nerve connections in the area causing a temporary paralysis and disables the limb it's used on." He grinned at his own ingenuity for having developed the technique.

Ten Ten on the other hand was completely confused, what happened to the block headed hyperactive ninja that they all knew could barely count to ten.

"If you're wondering why I know the more detailed descriptions of it, you can thank Neji for that. Honestly, I understood the feeling of what I was doing, but he's the one who explained it to me in the more appropriate terms."

"Okay, that makes a lot more sense." Her comment was met with a grand pout from her blonde associate.

Eventually Sasuke returned dragging Kiba in toe, they didn't say anything and simply walked into the cave so they could set up their things. A few minutes after later, Hinata woke up followed by an almost incomprehensible "I'msosorrybye!", as she jumped to her feet and ran into the cave.

"It's only a few hours until dawn, let's get in and start the planning meeting so we can get this done and go home." Naruto stood, stretching with a loud sequence of popping sounds, then walked into the cave closely followed by Ten Ten.

********************************************** THE NEXT DAY**********************************************

It was early afternoon, a light rain had been kind enough to cover the sound and scent of their approach. The final consensus for the attack was an all out assault while using a venom suppressant Sakura had developed that would reduce and delay the effects of any poisons they came in contact with. The drug wasn't perfect, and it only functioned for around an hour, but it would give Sakura plenty of time to tend to the injured after the battle without worrying about them dying during the fight.

They had found the hideout a few hours before using several dozen of Naruto's shadow clones running around Henged as squirrels and birds, since then the clones had been watching the patrols and taking a rough head count.

The place appeared to be an underground complex, so exact numbers were out of the question, but they had seen four different alternating three man patrols and half a dozen of what appeared to be maintenance workers, likely noncombatants.

Naruto had killed and replaced two of the patrols with shadow clones, leaving them a two minute window every fifteen minutes to get out once the mission was completed.

After passing their own fake patrol and quietly maneuvering around the base, all six stood ready near the large metal fire door leading down into the complex. Naruto held the door with his right hand, but stalled his allies a moment raising his left. "Remember, all of you are getting out of here alive or so help me god I'm going to drag your asses out kicking and screaming." There was a silent nod from the five of them, "Good!" As the door leading down silently slid open.

* * *

Shinkei Hari no Jutsu = Nerve Needles

Hey everyone, this is my first story so please review and tell me if I should improve on anything. I appreciate any perspective you may have so that I can make this a good story. I post this on some other sights, so don't worry if you see it there. I have several chapters already written and will try and upload all of them within a few days.

Thanks for reading


	2. The first steps

The dimly lit halls stretched on in all direction, the sound of leaking pipes could be heard coming from several rooms out of sight and the residual echo of the rain could be heard from far away. Moldy grey stone walls framing over-wide hallways, lined with what seemed like hundreds of small side rooms, apparently the facility was an old emergency shelter in some very obvious states of disrepair. Without making a sound, the six slid through the flickering shadows, peering into rooms and hallways, like grim reapers on the prowl.

The security detail seemed very relaxed on the inside, they walked in two or three man groups and were inattentive as well as disorganized. It wasn't worth it to raise the alarm yet so they decided to avoid conflict and maintain stealth until it was necessary to fight.

Several side rooms contained weapons, food, and medical supplies. With some quick work they left substantial amounts of explosive notes waiting as a present for the first person to open any of the doors.

Almost an hour had passed of them aimlessly searching the countless small rooms before they came across a security room. Inside was a simple desk with several monitor displays and a switchboard, the ninja sitting at the desk looked thoroughly bored and was completely unaware of their presence. Sakura placed a hand on Naruto's chest to halt him from moving in, when he looked at her curiously, she simply slid a small pouch out of one of her concealed pockets as though it would answer his inquiry.

When his inquisitive look didn't disappear, she just smiled at him and poured a small amount of fine red powder from the pouch into her gloved hand. Concentrating chakra to her mouth, she blew out, pushing the powder into a small whirlwind in the air. The tiny tornado silently spun until it was just above the man's head, then dissipated causing a fine red cloud to gradually cover his face.

Seconds after the cloud had moved past the man's nose, he began to cough, it was only a light cough, but it quickly escalated to wheezing and a shortness of breath. The man began to panic, clutching at his throat in an attempt to breath, he tried to stand but his legs would no longer support him as he fell to the ground, foaming at the mouth. After several more seconds of vain struggling, the man went limp, twitching at random intervals.

She stepped in, dusting off her hands, "Heart attacks are much cleaner than anything you do." She said plainly to the confused but impressed onlookers.

After a moment of amusement at her methods, Naruto waved the others into the room then closed the door behind them. "Sakura, do your stuff."

With a curt nod to him, she stepped up to the door forming several quick seals, "Kokoro Wasureppoi no Jutsu." The door knob glowed a light blue for a moment, then faded back to the tarnished brass color.

"Hinata, eyes open, I want to know as soon as someone comes within 50 meters." On reflex to the command she activated her blood limit without question as he turned to the others to dish out orders. "Sasuke, Sakura, work the switch board and see if you can find the room they're being held in, it's probably high security so if there isn't a camera in the room there should at least be guards outside it." They also immediately moved to action, flickering through what seemed like hundreds of cameras on the seven usable screens. Turning to the last two, they stood at attention waiting to be issued orders. It seemed a little odd to them that Naruto was taking charge since Sakura was actually the team leader, but she was going along with his ideas so who were they to argue with them. "Are you two good for some reconnaissance?"

Kiba just grinned in response, Ten Ten however quirked her head, "How do you plan on us doing reconnaissance when we just locked ourselves in?"

Naruto just grinned back and with one hand, pointed up. Their eyes followed his hand to see a ventilation grating with a lazily spinning fan. Ten Ten frowned in apprehension, "You're kidding me, right?"

"Only somewhat," He tossed what looked like a wound ball of string at Kiba and a blank scroll at Ten Ten, "Actually, you're going to draw us a map of the vents using Kiba and that chakra line to get measurements." To respond to their unvoiced questions, he walked up to Kiba, grabbing the loose end of the ball in his hand and pulled it out about a meter. When it stopped moving, a dull blue display, no more than two inches wide, appeared floating over the ball registering the number '1.3m'. He then placed the finger of his off hand on one side of the string and pulled it across so that it took the form of an upside-down L. At this point the small display changed slightly, showing '1.3m/0.4m(le)'.

He released the string and let it slide back into place, looking up, he grinned at Ten Ten's dumbstruck face in contrast to Kiba's over excited one. "Let's just say I trust your drawings more than his stick figures." Kiba's excitement dropped to a scowl for a moment, but even he couldn't argue that his penmanship didn't suck. "I want you two to get a full layout of as much of the ventilation system as you can, the cord only has 300 meters so you probably wont be able to get the entire facility, if you come across any points of interest, find some way you can notify each other so they can be marked on the map. Remember, just because the security is cheap in this facility doesn't mean it doesn't exist, and the enemy are still shinobi, so be careful."

They both nodded, a little too flustered at Naruto's sudden ability at taking charge to question him for anything. Kiba had Ten Ten stand on his shoulders so she could pop open the air vent and crawl in, it was fairly large so she could sit without to much difficulty. She passed her hand down to give Kiba a hand up, keeping her head low so she didn't hit the slow revolving fan.

Once he was up in the vents, he tied the loose end of the chakra cord to his belt, shed his bulky jacket and took off down the shaft. Ten Ten just sighed as she brought out her brush and ink vial so that she could start drawing out the facility.

Now that everyone was hard at work on their tasks, Naruto propped up the dead shinobi and began to examine him. He didn't wear a headband or any other object that could relate what village he was from and weapon pouch was half empty consisting of standard kunai and shuriken.

"Naruto-kun," Hinata's voice pulled him up from his task, he looked into her heavily veined eyes, waiting for her to inform him of the situation. She took a step back at his intense look, but continued to speak, "Ano, there are two men coming down the hall to the west, they're discussing something regarding the north."

"Are they headed towards us or just passing by?" Panic could be noted on his voice, if more ninja show up there could be unforeseen problems.

"They just turned down this hallway, I can't tell if they're coming here." Her voice dropped to a whisper, Sasuke and Sakura had taken note of the conversation and stopped speaking for the moment to conceal their presence.

The voices of the two men could now be heard through the door as they gradually came closer. "Come on Tama, if Naguchi doesn't get their surrender, you know he'll just have the north branch wipe them out." The mans voice was deep but a bit raspy as though he were getting over a bad cold.

"I just don't get why he'd kill them though," The second man's voice was of a higher pitch but still with a definitive masculine feel to it. "they supply us with most of our food willingly. Wouldn't killing them just be kicking ourselves in the ass?"

"Yeah, well since he got his hands into the heads of the sand twins, he's been hell bent on moving his plans forward as fast as possible." The voices stopped in front of the door, "Anyway, let's grab Masu and get something to eat."

The tension inside was rising as they knew the men on the other side were reaching for the door. They were all confident in Sakura's genjutsu but there was always a chance that the man would have an exceptionally strong mind and break it. They heard the creak of the door knob as pressure was put against it from the outside, then time stopped for a moment, the knob didn't turn, but neither was the pressure removed.

"Hmm, you know what Tama, maybe it's better we don't bring him along, it would be bad if someone found out that no one was manning the cameras. We'll just bring something back for him." They saw the tension on the handle retract and almost in unison let out a small breath of relief. Without warning, a fist knocked against the outside of the door several times in quick succession causing Hinata to let out a stifled 'Eep' as Naruto's hand covered her mouth to silence her.

The high pitched man's voice could be heard this time, "Hey Masu, we're grabbing some food. What do you want?" Inside they began to silently panic, none of them had heard the man's voice so they couldn't mimic him. After a few seconds of silence, the fist hit the door again, "Hey Masu, you asleep? I said what do you want to eat?!"

Naruto looked around madly for something they could do. "Shit!" he thought, "We're taking too long." he jumped over to the desk and grabbed what looked to be the man's coffee cup, he eyed the dull sludge for a moment before giving in and pouring it down his throat. The others looked at him awkwardly as he inhaled while drinking it and started to cough and splutter loudly.

The knock came again but quieter, "Hey Masu, you okay in there?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Naruto croaked in an odd wet rasp intermingled with coughing. "Coffee just went down the wrong pipe."

"Ah, that sucks, so what do you want to eat?" Obviously the act was working since the voice seemed appeased by the answer.

"Nothing, I ate a few minutes ago." He continued to cough, god he hated the taste of coffee. "Go on, I'll see you two later."

"Sure, we'll come by an hour before we head on shift to kill some time." Their footsteps and conversation could then be heard moving away down one of the other hallways.

Naruto continued spluttering, trying to rid his mouth of the overly bitter taste of the at least day old coffee that had been on the desk. Sasuke walked over to him, putting a small canteen in front of his face of which he happily popped open and drained, clearing his mouth of the vile taste. "Not a bad idea blondie."

"I didn't see you do any better." He retorted, passing up the now empty canteen.

The minutes ticked by, the security cameras had displayed several areas with detailed security shifts, but nothing that seemed to give the impression of prisoners being held. Twice already Ten Ten had called down for them to pass her up another blank scroll of which she continued to dutifully draw out the facility. Hinata had stopped them on two other times where people were passing but in both cases the people had just been maintenance staff bringing supplies from one place to another.

"I guess we're waiting on Kiba to find them at this rate." Naruto stood cross-armed with his back against the door. "Hey Sakura, how did your genjutsu work again?"

Sakura who was sitting at the desk with her feet up, randomly flipping through camera displays, didn't look at him when she responded. "Whoever touches the door from the outside is implanted with a mild subconscious message telling them for one reason or another that they don't want to enter the room. It's actually quite simple if..." She continued to drone on the subject of proper applications of genjutsu while staring at the computer monitors, not realizing that after she had finished the simple description, Naruto had stopped paying attention.

He brought up his left hand to look at the thin black ring around the base of his index finger. He disliked having anything on his hands, but as long as he kept it on he could be certain that Hinata would do her best. It just felt awkward to have, even though the hair was sleek and soft, he had always hated wearing any kind of rings or bracelets.

Hinata watched him stare intently at the ring of her hair around his finger, she felt something rise in her chest that she couldn't actively describe. Noticing that he was being observed, Naruto leaned his head slightly to look in her direction, "What's up Hinata-chan?"

Her face flared bright for a moment and she attempted express an apology, but in her embarrassment she was once again unable to string more than a few mouse-like squeaks together. Thankfully she was rescued from further embarrassment by the timely sound of Ten Ten dropping down from the vent.

"We've got a map." She said plainly as she smiled, holding the map up to Naruto.

He mentally sighed, he had been looking forward to teasing Hinata a bit, she acted really cute whenever she got embarrassed. "Oh well, work first." he thought to himself as he took the three rolled up scrolls and moved to the desk where he could spread them out.

Kiba dropped down from the vent landing on all fours and breathing rather heavily, "Hey Naruto, this thing is awesome!" He produced the chakra line from one of his pockets and tossed it at Naruto, who despite his back being turned, caught in one hand and stuffed away into his coat. "Where can I get one of those?" he added before shaking the accumulated dust from the vents out of his hair and leaning up against the wall.

Naruto looked over at the haze of dust that Kiba left standing in the air and grumbled something before replying, "Iruka makes them, they take a while though, so don't expect him to be able to make you one any time soon."

"Yeah, yeah, I'll manage." He smirked, sliding his hands behind his head and closing his eyes, "So what's the plan?"

Naruto looked back to the now unfolded scrolls and began marking small notes around the various areas the Ten Ten had called attention to. The map was actually incredibly detailed in such a way that ever length of vent was listed with an exact length, and every grate was marked off. After several minutes of going over the map and comparing certain 'Hot Spots' with camera displays, he called the five of them to pay attention, "First of all, great job with the map Ten Ten, when we get back, first bowl of ramen's on me." He smiled at her to which she just shook her head in amused disbelief. "There are three places that seem to fit the bill. Two of the rooms have three guards each with two cameras facing them from different angles, there are no cameras on the inside and only a slot on their door that appears to be for food. The ventilation shafts are too small to enter the rooms directly and the size of the rooms work out to be about big enough for three to five people." He stopped a moment to allow them all to establish mental images of the correct areas, he flicked four of the security monitors to display the security cameras he had spoken of. "These rooms are two hallways down from each other so there is only around a 65 meter separation. The third room is farther off and is completely unguarded, however apparently according to Kiba and Ten Ten, there is a fairly powerful seal keeping it shut."

"So basically what you're saying is that we're only getting one chance at this before we need to fight our way out." Interrupted Sasuke.

Naruto sighed, it certainly did look that way, but he had a plan, "Not quite," he waited a moment, taking in their reactions, "We are going to do them systematically, but someone is going to need to stay here and keep watch for us. Ten Ten, would you be willing to?"

She quirked her head in an inquisitive manner causing her long braid to sway like a pendulum. "Sure, but why me? I'd figure that I would be more useful to make sure that no one gets away when we jump them."

He rubbed the back of his head, a guilty grin on his face, "Well honestly the best people to stay behind on this type of stealth portion of the mission would myself or Kiba, but neither of us have the patience to sit around monitoring you guys and if something went wrong we'd snap because we wouldn't be able to help. Sakura will be needed for her medical jutsu, Sasuke is better than any of us with stealth, and we'll likely need Hinata's Jyukken to paralyze some of the shinobi. Your ranged support would be useful in all situations, but we need someone who can keep their cool to stay behind and monitor us." He paused a moment, letting them all have their own proud, smug, or embarrassed reactions before he continued. "So, can I count on you?"

She hated this, not only did he just guilt trip her into staying behind, but he did it so well that she couldn't do anything but accept. She narrowed her eyes at him in irritation, "Fine, but it's not ramen you owe me anymore, it's sushi, the good kind!" Her scowl softened as he mumbled something involving accepting his inevitable defeat.

"Sakura, we need the headsets." At Naruto's instruction, Sakura reached into her side pouch and pulled out six tightly wound wires. Taking five of them from her, he passed the spare four to the others before unraveling his own. The wires when unraveled were around two and a half feet long with a bead at one end, another about a foot foot down from the first and a small clasp at the far end. After a bit of untangling, he place the first bead inside his ear, then clipped the wire around the back of his neck so that the second bead was pressed to his throat. Once it was comfortable, he began to adjust something on the bead against his neck while listening intently to his earbead. After a few seconds, he seemed satisfied and looked back to the rest of them, "Okay, set your frequencies to 142 then check your gear, we move in three minutes."

At the command, they all began to adjust their headsets to the proper frequency.

"Good luck." Ten Ten waved them off one by one as they all climbed their way into the ventilation shafts. Once they were all gone she let out a dejected sigh and sat down in the moldy chair, aimlessly watching the patrols move around.

Through the cramped shafts of the ventilation system, Kiba silently scurried ahead of the group, leading them to their first destination. After around 150 meters of winding vents, Kiba stopped near one that looked down on three individuals who were holding what looked like standard batons.

The opening to this vent was very small, while the guys should be able to squeeze through, it would take time. Naruto looked back at Sakura and Hinata thinking on which would be the better option, using Sakura's poisons in the vents would be right up with suicide and her physical attacks would notify everyone in a mile radius that they were here. Hinata however should be able to deploy any of her Jyukken techniques without extra attention being drawn.

"Hinata," He whispered, the slight vibrations being picked up by his receiver and heard properly by the others. "Can you knock out three guards quickly and silently?"

Her reply, though a little more strained and uncertain was just as quiet, "Ano, I should be able, but are you certain I won't mess it up?"

Stoically, he nodded, "I trust you completely, I want you to get all three, but if you can't don't worry about it. Sasuke," The Uchiha in raised his head attentively, "give her back up, without Ten Ten around, you're the best with range."

"Sure thing." Was his only reply.

Though she trembled for a few moments, a slight nod from her confirmed her willingness to take part. The tiniest of smirks pulled at the corner of his lips as looked back down through the hole for a moment before contacting Ten Ten, "Hey Ten Ten, are we clear for the next two minutes?"

It took a few moments, but shortly they heard Ten Ten's voice over the headsets, "Set yourselves up in the mean time, there's a patrol going down the next hallway but they're moving away. They'll be out of range in about 30 seconds, if they stop or anyone else starts to show up, I'll communicate right away."

Being vigilante of her warning, they silently removed the grating without letting any of the screws fall down and slid it back up and into the ventilation shaft. Naruto and Sasuke moved to either side of the opening and Hinata, with her Byakkugan active, moved between them so that she was standing over the hole. They grabbed her arms and slowly lowered her down into the hall below. While she was being lowered, she began to slide her legs backwards so that she was relatively flat against the ceiling, this put her slightly off balance, but she was strong enough to hold herself straight and the two supporting her could compensate appropriately for her balance. Once she had her head through and the only part of her that was still in the vents was her arms, she channeled some chakra into her feet, spreading them out and sticking them to the ceiling. One at a time she slipped her arms out of their grip and grabbed the ceiling using her chakra, after a few moments of silent adjustment to her grip, she was ready to drop down.

"Breath in, breath out, I don't need to kill them so there's nothing to panic about, I can just knock them out." Hinata mentally gave herself a pep talk as she made ready to drop, "Well, it's now or never, everyone's counting on me to do this, breath in, breath out." She closed her eyes for a second, letting out a deep breath she had been holding in. She knew she was only a few feet above their heads, and if she let them get away, everything was over... Her eyes snapped open as she dropped down into the group.

The three guards never saw it coming, with hardly a rustle of clothing she had dropped into a standing position between them and slid into her Jyukken stance. While the guards on either side jumped in recognition and began ready themselves against her, she struck with an open palm against the man in front of her, hitting him at the base of the neck and dropping him like a puppet with his strings cut. She pivoted on her heel to change her target and quickly lunged forward a half step, striking the man on her right in the chest with her palm and elbow. He stepped back a little to reduce her blow, however the impact of her Jyukken sent him sprawling unconscious to the ground. Using the impact of her palm against the man on her right, she pushed off and spun herself around with a leg sweep, taking the feet out from under the man on her left. Once he hit the ground, it was just two strikes to the neck with the Jyukken and he was out like a light.

After a quick examination to make sure the three wouldn't be up any time soon, she waved up at the others to come down. Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto squeezed through the small opening and dropped down into the hall, leaving a slightly disgruntled Kiba waiting for them in the vents. Unfortunately his build made it almost impossible for him to fit through this opening and none of them really felt like having to wait for him to force his way back up if they needed to run.

With laughable ease, Sasuke disabled the alarm on the door and opened the lock. Preparing for the worst, everyone readied themselves as he quickly pushed open the door... it wasn't what they were expecting. Both side walls were lined with shelving units covered in small jars, and there were five large green crates against the far wall, other than that the room was barren.

Sakura and Hinata started walking along opposite walls, taking stock of the objects on the shelves, meanwhile Sasuke went about dragging the three prone guards into the room and Naruto examined the crates. The crates were filled with around forty of some strange metal tube bound to a wood base, the entire unit was was around three feet long and weighed only a few pounds. Putting the object back in the crate, her turned to the girls, waiting to hear about their findings.

Sakura's face was set in a scowl, "All these are all poisons," She made a sweeping gesture with her arm indicating the shelves along the walls, "They vary from deadly to weak, ingested to contact, fast acting to slow acting, there's probably enough in this room that if they don't waste too much, they could kill every man, woman, and child in the fire country." She turned to face the mass of jars, rubbing her chin in thought. "It should normally take months to make this much while using a massive team with access to incredible facilities, but there's no way they have the proper facilities in this place, and I really doubt they have enough experts among their ranks to be able to form a large enough team."

"So basically you're saying that either they're actually incredible poison makers, or that they're being supplied by someone." Naruto's voice pulled her from her thoughts.

She turned back around to face him, "Yes, but there's also the time factor. We received this mission last week, the poison makers were kidnapped five days prior to that, according to the information provided by Kazekage-sama this group has only existed for about two months." She pulled a small glass vial off the shelf to her left, if contained grainy brown liquid that looked similar to gravy, "This is teseno, it's a contact poison that is 80% fatal even when the antidote is applied within the hour. It needs to be left to set for three full months and if anything shakes the pot it's in during that point, it will neutralize completely."

The three others gave the little vial a closer look, the brown sludge looked like nothing more than a garnish for meat. "So you're saying that this group is probably a subsidiary of a larger organization that's supplying them with weapons, correct?" Sasuke stated bluntly in a bored tone that defied the intrigue in his visible eye.

"Naruto," She called his attention back to her, "Can you three handle the next room on your own? I want to stay here for a little while and neutralize these, just breaking them could do some major permanent damage to the area if they somehow leak into the groundwater."

Naruto glanced down both the heavily encumbered walls then brought his eye back to the smaller pink haired girl in front of him, "Start now!" She immediately began to turn but was caught off guard when his hand with three fingers raised was pressed into her face. "You have three minutes to break down anything extremely dangerous, after that we blow the room. Don't waste any time!" She nodded and started to run back and forth between the shelves. "Sasuke, Hinata!" They both looked up at his call, "Get back into the vent and tell Kiba to wait for Sakura before coming to meet with us. I'll be along in just a minute, so wait for me." They both nodded and headed back into the corridor.

She watched from the door, peering around the edge and being curious even though she had little need to be. Naruto stood near the back of the room while Sakura ran back and forth between all the various vials and jars. Hinata could hear her name being called but she didn't really care, whoever it was would stop in a minute.

She watched as he performed a Kuchiyose and summoned a toad that came about up to his waist. It had two large gourds and wore what appeared to be an overlarge housecoat. "Hinata!" damn, someone was still trying to get her attention, she just wanted them to be quiet, but for some reason she felt that the voice had reason for it's urging.

He spoke to the toad with a friendly tone, rubbing it's head affectionately, apparently whatever he asked it to do it had agreed upon immediately. She smiled to herself at how even summoned creatures couldn't help themselves and just want to help Naruto out. Her smile slipped as her mind slid into her darker thoughts, feeding off her own insecurities. "I wish I could be needed as well..." She whispered against the wall, she craved his recognition but whenever he gave it she just couldn't bring herself to believe him.

Her thoughts continued to darken until she was hastily brought back to reality by something large with black and orange highlights appearing directly in front of her. She had been so lost in her own little world that she hadn't actually noticed that after he finished speaking with his summon, he had got up and walked towards the door. Naruto looked down at her curiously as her mind cracked and her first instinct was run. She turned and made it only a half step before she collided head first in the Uchiha who was hanging down from the ceiling. There was a solid thunk from their heads colliding as she fell backwards against Naruto's chest, caught a little off guard, he barely managed to grab her shoulders to prevent her from sliding off of him onto the ground.

Sasuke rubbed his forehead muttering, "Yeesh, pay attention when I'm talk to you Hinata." Sasuke scolded the stunned Hyuga.

"I'm really sorry Sasuke-kun." Her head tilted in an attempt to bow her head, however she hadn't realized that she was still being held in place. At this realization, her eyes widened in shock and she jumped a few feet away from them. Turning to face them both with a startled look on her face, she bowed low enough that her hair traced the floor, "Gomen, gomen, gomen, gomen, gomen, gomen, I didn't mean to do any of that." Sasuke just rolled his eyes in response and pulled himself back up into the vents, Naruto however just crossed his arms and looked at her.

"Hinata!" His voice was quiet but had a distinct power to it.

Her body twitched in reaction, years of conditioning from her overbearing father told her that this voice meant she was in serious trouble. She tensed, waiting for what she expected would be another scolding at how worthless she was.

"We're on a mission now, don't get distracted by anything."

She felt a deep flush rise in her cheeks, why did she always do things to embarrass herself? If only there were a rock to crawl under right now, maybe it would help pull her out of this situation.

"I'll tell you what," A firm hand gripped her shoulder, causing her head to rise somewhat, "Until the end of this mission you are not going to become distracted and you'll continue to do your best. Additionally, once this mission is over you are going to sit down and explain to me why you're spacing out in such dangerous situations." Her shoulders slumped, she really didn't want to have to explain that.

Seeing her body slump even more from it's bowing position, Naruto determined that maybe he hadn't used the best approach for this. He kneeled down in front of her, placing his free hand onto her other shoulder, "Listen Hinata," His voice was calm and kind like it normally was, "I don't want you or anyone else to get hurt. That means I can't have you lowering your guard in dangerous situations. We could die at any second down here and the only things we have to keep ourselves alive are ourselves, our wits, and our training." He waited a moment to let his words sink in, she shuddered a bit, thinking back to what could have happened if Sasuke had been an enemy instead. "I'd happily die to make sure that all of you could get away alive, but I'd rather we all get out of here in one piece." She looked up into his clear blue eyes, seeing the tiny reflection of her own pale ones, he smiled at her and stood up, offering his left hand. "You promised me you'd do your best."

She let out a small laugh of relief as she took the offered hand, "And I know that you hate liars." He pulled her to her feet, the dark mood having completely left her.

"Naruto!" Their radios crackled in unison, snapping them out of their thoughts.

"Yeah Ten Ten?" He answered enthusiastically, glad for a chance to change the subject.

"Unless you'd like the oncoming patrol to interrupt your date, I'd recommend making yourself scarce in the next 30 seconds.

Their eyes snapped wide as they quickly went into action. Within five seconds, Hinata was up inside the vents and Naruto had already created two shadow clones. They took a quick look at the unconscious guards inside the room, then quickly henged themselves to look like them and closed the door.

Seconds later, a group of three ninja turned the corner and walked towards Naruto and his clones. The seconds ticked by as they came closer, closer closer, Naruto could feel sweat forming on his brow, but was thankful that it wouldn't show up on his illusion. As they moved past, one of the ninja gave a slight nod to one of the clones, under the pretense of not breaking their cover, the clone returned the nod. Soon they were well past the clones and had turned the corner to continue their patrol.

Letting out a ragged breath, he dismissed his illusions and clones, "Ten Ten, we in the clear?"

The radio was silent a moment, then crackled to back with Ten Ten's voice, "You guys are good for now. Get moving to your second target."

"Thanks." He replied into his radio before turning and opening the door again. Sakura was gathering together some things from the shelves while the frog he had summoned was busy spraying the room with oil.

He looked up at the small opening leading to the ventilation shaft, he knew it was tight, but he still had to get back up, so with a little squeezing, Naruto slid his way back into the ventilation shaft. Guttural growls were the first thing to meet his ears after he slid himself away from the opening, a glance over to Kiba confirmed his suspicions that apparently he was pissed about something.

"You three!" Kiba's growling quieted down as his curiosity overwhelmed his rage, at least for the moment. "Move ahead to the second room, neutralize the guards in the quietest manner you can, then wait for the two of us to arrive. Hinata," He looked at her, the other two following his gaze, "You're in charge until we meet back up with you guys." Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Hinata tense up and strangely enough, saw Sasuke let out what seemed to be a sigh of relief. "Hinata, you need to take charge here because without Sakura or myself there, they'll need your calm and simple decision making. Both of those two," He gestured towards the two males, "will always act first and think later, so I need you to think for them." He let them absorb the various degrees of insults and compliments for a moment before going on, "So why haven't you three left yet, didn't I give you an order?" They scurried off right away, disappearing around a corner.

Without anyone around, the vent seemed smaller and less comfortable drawing a small shudder from the normally, heavily active man. Soon enough they would be returning home, happily discussing their lives and their plans for the coming week. But things could just as easily go wrong, they could all be killed or even worse, captured. He had to make sure nothing went wrong, he needed to protect them all. His eyes lost their shine as a scowl moved to his face. While in his imagination induced stupor, he failed to notice the arrival of the small pink haired girl, for whom he had been waiting.

Just by looking at his face, she could tell where his thoughts were, he was petrified of losing anyone who he cared about. She reached forward and grabbed his hand lightly, snapping him out of his stupor and forcing him to look into her eyes, "Naruto," her tone was soft and warm as she smiled sadly, gripping his hand a little tighter, "All those things you told Hinata, well we need the same from you. We need you to continue being strong, but we need you to trust in us as well... remember Naruto, we're you're family."

He smiled at her remark, he was glad that he had friends like Sakura, an amused thought popped into his head which on instinct, he voiced, "You know something funny?" Confused, she looked at him with an eyebrow raised as if to instigate a response. "I can see Sasuke doing almost the exact same thing you're doing, except instead of holding my hand I see him decking me."

She thought on that idea a moment, it definitely seemed like something that Sasuke would do. Shaking the thoughts from her mind, she figured it would be best to finish this subject quickly and get on with the mission. "Just be quiet a do what you're big sister says." she said quickly, lightly smacking him in the back of the head.

"Big sister?" She smacked him again, a little harder this time. "Fine, fine, whatever you say." He stuck his tongue out at her and quickly crawled off down the vent towards where the other should have already taken care of the next group of guards.

"Hey Naruto, what about the..." She cut herself off as she looked back out the hole and saw three guards attentively standing in front of the storage room. She quickly crawled along to catch up with him, poking him in the back when she was close, "When did you create the shadow clones?" She hadn't noticed him perform any seals or channel any chakra.

"Hmm? Oh, I made the spare ones just after summoning Gamakito."

She thought about it a moment, but in the end it made sense that she wouldn't have noticed it, she had been to busy running around dealing with the more lethal poisons. It wasn't really important anyway, so she dropped the issue and just continued to follow Naruto's lead.

Around a minute later, they turned a corner to arrive face to face with a thoroughly bored looking Sasuke. He eyed the two of them and with a distinct note curiosity, "Everything done?"

Naruto nodded, "We have another 15 minutes before the fires start, you guys done over here?"

He gestured his thumb over his should towards the vent opening behind him which was substantially larger than the one near the previous room, "Kiba dealt with the guards and Hinata is checking out the door to make sure there's no alarms. We were waiting for your two before we popped it, come on." He shuffled his way over to the opening and dropped through it.

Dropping down after him, they saw Hinata working away at the door and Kiba leaning up against the wall opposite her, keeping watch. She glanced back at them, acknowledging their arrival and waving them all over.

Naruto moved in front of the door, causing Hinata to step off to the side to allow him to go first, "Well, let's get a move on. Besides, it can't be that much worse than the last room." The door quietly opened inwards revealing what was inside... Naruto hated being so wrong.

* * *

Kokoro Wasureppoi no Jutsu = Forgetful Mind


	3. What I will give

They had estimated the size of the room to be around 20 feet by 10 feet to which they saw was an accurate guess. What they couldn't have foreseen, were the contents.

The light inside was blindingly bright, illuminating ever inch of the room and momentarily dazing them as their eyes adjusted from the dull hallway lights. Unfortunately, once their eyes adjusted to the new lighting, it was impossible to take back what had been seen. People of all ages and types, children, teenagers, adults, the elderly, men and women, all of them were strapped up against the walls into standing positions with solid metal bands so that they couldn't fight back or move. Each person had a band across their forehead, one across their chest, one across their waist, binding their hands into metal gloves, and one over each knee which prevented them from bending. In front of each person along the wall, there was an IV drip set up and hooked into their arms. Along the middle of the room there were three hospital beds covered in extensive leather straps as well as a what were quite obviously blood stains, both new and old.

Kiba immediately fell to the ground retching, the potent smell of death, blood and waste overpowering his sensitive nose, meanwhile Sasuke who stood beside him remained impassive , only taking a step to the side to avoid the newly forming puddle. Hinata couldn't bring herself to look after the first glance, so she stepped to the side of the door, sadly looking over her companions faces and reactions. Sakura's eyes flared in rage as she quickly tried to step past Naruto into the room, but was brought to a stop when his arm came out to halt her.

"Move Naruto!" She spoke with venom, obviously expecting her demands to be met, but he didn't retract his arm. Sasuke and Hinata looked at him with a mixture of awe and curiosity as to why he was trying to stop Sakura, especially given the current situation.

"...lm....wn." He mumbled, as he stared vacantly at the ground.

"What?! I told you to move." Her voice wasn't loud, but carried her demand clearly.

He closed his eyes and drew a slow, deep breath, then spoke calmly, his eyes still shut, "Sakura, I need you to calm down. If you go in there like you are now, then you wont be able to help them.

She stopped a moment to process what he had said, he was right, she needed to calm down, to help anyone in there, she had to keep her cool. Her fury faded down to a simmering anger, allowing her to step back a step from his arm.

He looked up at her as she stepped back and smiled sadly, he wished that she wasn't their medical expert so he wouldn't have to force her to experience this. "Sakura, do a quick examination of as many as you can, I want a report in five minutes. We're running out of time so do what you can."

She appraised him for a moment, starring at him intently, "Thanks." she said quietly, before walking past him into the room.

Naruto watched her quickly move from person to person and sighed before turning back to the others. "Hinata, take care of Kiba, the smell is apparently to much for him, Sasuke, come with me."

"Hai, Naruto-kun." Replied Hinata quietly as she moved up beside Kiba and proceeded to drag him away from the door.

Naruto looked back at the two of them a moment before turning back and walking into the open doorway, closely followed by Sasuke.

Inside was a nightmare, even though drains lined the walls and more were in the center of the room, the smell of waste and other fluids was overpowering. He glanced along the walls, counting the forms, 25 all told and just from the cursory glance he could tell, more than half of them were long since dead.

He moved closer to the first person on the right wall, an elderly looking man, his eyes having rolled back into his head, pallid loose skin and his obvious lack of expanding chest made it obvious the man was dead. Forcing open the mans mouth, he could see the telltale signs of a large dose of high toxicity poison, the mans tongue was completely black with necrosis, as was the top of his mouth. Turning to the side, he saw that the IV bag that was still hooked to the mans arm was empty, save for the residue of a mottled purple liquid.

Naruto examined the bands that bound the man to the wall, each piece was fit into slides in the wall so that they could be easily adjusted to fit a persons height. The bands also appeared to be somewhat modular to allow them to compensate for thinner or fatter individuals.

He felt a hand be placed on his arm just below the shoulder, expecting Saukra, he turned with a note of surprise to find Hinata standing somewhat fearfully behind him.

"Hinata?" He was confused that she would enter such a horrible place, her first reaction had given him the impression that she would rather eat spiders than walk into this place. Realizing he was staring, he quickly followed through with a different question, "What about Kiba?"

"He said he'll be fine," She looked down to escape what she saw as an intense glare, while in actuality he was just surprised, "he just can't come in here, the smell is to strong for him."

He put his hand on her shoulder, glad that she was able to overcome her own fears and was about to tell her something along those lines before Sakura's voice broke the silence in the room.

"Get over here, this one's alive!"

Sasuke was the first one at her side, followed closely by Naruto and Hinata from across the room. They gathered in front of the petit frame of a little girl, probably no more than nine or ten years old, she was around four and a half feet tall with long black hair that covered her face and her skin was tinged grey, but she was still breathing. Just like the others, she wore what seemed like a soiled white gown that came down to her knees, the stains of having been left to stand for days on end completely visible.

Sakura grabbed both sides of the band across her head and bent it open with the high screech of metal being forcefully bent. The girls head lolled down to her chest where Sakura then straightened her neck and gently placed her left hand over the girls face as she channeled chakra into her palm. A moment later, the girl spasmed violently and began to vomit a thick grey sludge down her front. After several seconds more of spasming and a few more spurts of the sludge, the girl slumped back against her supports, her skin lightening to more of a sickly pale.

"I forced her body to expel the poisons using chakra. It hurts like hell and dehydrates the person, but it works well." She stated matter of factly, as if to answer everyone's silent questions.

Naruto nodded to her in understanding, "Go see if anyone else is alive, I'll deal with the rest here." Sakura nodded and went back to examining the others. He looked up at Sasuke, "Hey bastard, grab the other side and help me pry these off."

The Uchiha glared at him, but immediately took up a position on the other side of him, gripping the band across her chest, "Ready when you are Na-chan." Naruto growled over the new nickname, but ignored it.

Hinata moved forward to support the girl as they began to rip the bands apart, one at a time. When they finished, Hinata picked up the tiny form of the girl and held her curled up in her arms. Naruto stepped up to look at the girl, brushing her long hair from face, he saw her eyes were tightly closed, but could see them moving beneath their lids, she was dreaming.

He slipped out a small canteen from his pocket and dripped it slowly onto the girl's cracked lips, the reaction was immediate as even in her sleep, she licked the water off her lips and tried to move her head in the direction of the water. The girl didn't have the strength to move her own neck properly, so Hinata propped her against her shoulder so that she was at a better angle to drink. Taking the hint, Naruto let a small stream of the water pour down onto her lips, though most of it poured down her chin or splattered onto Hinata, the girl kept swallowing however much fell into her mouth.

After another minute or so of the slow pouring water, Sakura returned and with a mournful shake of her head, answered the question that none of them had wanted to ask. Letting them continue to slow feed the girl water, Sakura began to analyze what type of damage the girl still had.

Guiding her hands from the girl's head to toes, she made a mental checklist of the various problems that she would face if she was able to recover properly. Her eyes opened with a sigh and looked to the two who seemed almost like dotting parents, tending to a sick child.

She let out a light cough to draw the others attention, "She has major ligament damage in her knees and wrists, her liver and kidneys have suffered long term damage due to exposure to high toxicity poisons, she has serious anemia as well as several dozen superficial internal and surface wounds, and..." Sakura mournfully sighed, she didn't want to say the last part, but she would need to, "And has undetermined damage from having been raped at least once."

Hinata hugged the girl to her chest protectively taken aback at the thought that something like that could happen to such a small girl. Naruto however had no idea what to do in the current situation, he just sat there like an idiot as Sasuke moved over to put a hand on Sakura's back and calm her.

Naruto stood up and looked around him in an attempt to distract himself from the topic on everyone elses minds, when his eyes fell on something odd. He walked off towards one of the people on the wall, leaving the others to tend to the girl for the moment.

As Hinata held the girl up against her shoulder, she felt her turn slightly and begin to snuggle into her chest. She looked down at the girl, both confused and afraid of what would happen if she woke up here, when she saw one of the girls eyes squinted open slightly. Obviously the girl had burst a blood vessel, because the only thing she could see through the open eyelid was red.

"Mommy?" The girls voice came in a dry rasp.

Naruto hadn't heard the girl, but the other two had as they moved in closer to see the her. As they moved in, seemingly in fright, the girl threw her arms around Hinata's neck and buried her face beneath her chin. Hinata, now completely confused was looking between the two of them for some kind of response, but they both looked equally dumbstruck.

"Hinata." Naruto's voice came from the corner, a hint of worry clearly audible. She looked up to him, one arm supporting the girl around her neck and the other one hanging to her side, uncertain as to what to do. "We have a problem." As he said this, he brushed aside the hair of a woman against the wall.

Hinata's eyes widened, the woman looked incredibly similar to her, the only real differences being a small amount of weight, Hinata was an inch or so taller, and the other woman had two moles beneath her eye. She looked down at the bundle of hair under her chin and back up to the woman on the wall, she could hardly even think to herself.

"Shit, shit, shit, I look just like this girls mother, what do I do now?" The thought screamed in her head as she began to panic while the girl only seemed to tighten her hold.

"Mommy, Sair wants to go home!" She could feel warm tears down her neck into her shirt, soaking in with the water that she'd been splashed with before. "Sair wanna see daddy, Sair don't wanna be near the bad men anymore." The girls sobs were quiet but heartrending.

Naruto waved to draw Hinata's attention, when she looked at him he pointed to the doorway, mouthing the word "outside". She understood what he meant, he didn't want the girl to see her real mother or the various other corpses, so she quietly stood, bringing her free hand to hold the girls head under her chin, and slowly walked out the door into the hallway. The other three followed quickly and closed the door behind them.

Kiba who was further down the hall keeping watch, eyed Hinata as she walked out with the small bundle and approached to question them.

"Kiba." Naruto said quietly as he came within a few feet of them, "Ask the questions later, now isn't the best time." Naruto walked around to Hinata's right side, ignoring Kiba's baffled look, and tapped the little girl lightly on the shoulder. She turned her head out from beneath Hinata's chin a bit and cracked open an eye, it was heavily red so he couldn't tell the girls natural eye color. He crouched down to be at the girls level and put his hand on Hinata's back to balance himself, she shifted a little in surprise but didn't force him off.

"Hello Sair." He tried his best to smile, but it felt almost like it was going to crack his face.

"Who're you?" She squeezed her arms tighter around Hinata whom was still uncertain as to how she should deal with this situation, so she just stood there and let the girl do what she wanted.

"Great, a grumpy child, perfect." Naruto thought to himself, but pushed the thoughts aside and continued anyway. "I'm Naruto, and we're all here to get you out of this place."

"No you're not, you just wanna hurt Sair and mommy more." She said in an accusatory tone as she wedged her head back beneath Hinata's chin.

Naruto really didn't feel like dealing with this right now, so he stated blandly "I'll tell you what kid, we have one more thing to do, then we're getting out of here." The girl turned her head back to look at Naruto in the same way she had before, "When we get outside, we'll talk about this again, but if you can be quiet until we're done, then when we get you back home I'll buy you a bowl of ramen." He expected to girl to give her same little harumph, and turn back into Hinata, but this time he was pleasantly surprised. The girl's head shot out and her eyes flared as she smiled happily at this idea, the others, except for Hinata who couldn't see, took a step back in reaction to the girls eyes.

The girl's eyes were a deep scarlet retina with no pupil, and the white part of her eye was heavily bloodshot, giving the impression of an entirely blood red eye. Thankfully she hadn't noticed their reactions as she looked up at Hinata with a pleading expression on her face, followed quickly by a confused one. "Mommy, can we? I'll be good, I... I... Mommy? What happened to your eyes?"

Once again being put on the spot, god was Hinata getting sick of this situation, "I'll tell you later, I promise... and yes we can, but you need to be quiet for now, okay?" The girl cocked her head inquisitively, but apparently accepted her answer and nodded fervently before curling up into the crook of her neck again.

Naruto was not looking forward to explaining to this little girl that her mother was dead, but for the moment, her acceptance was all they needed. But he wanted to make sure that she understood, so he walked moved around to behind Hinata so he could look into the girl's face.

"So, your name is Sair, right?" He asked, looking into her eyes.

"Yup, Sair is Sair." She replied in a happy tone that very much did not go with their current situation.

"Okay Sair, now remember, we need you to be very quiet until we get outside okay?" She nodded vigorously, answering his question. He smiled at her, her reactions seemed awfully similar to some things that he would have done when he was her age.

Naruto moved back around to in front of Hinata and began unbuckling his jacket much to the others curious stares. Once finished, Hinata's eyes widened in shock once again as Naruto draped the coat around her shoulders.

"N-N-Naruto, why are you giving this to me?" She felt embarrassed that he was putting something like his jacket over her.

"It's to protect you and Sair, now feed your arms through, I'll adjust the length." Almost unconsciously, she slid one arm at a time off of Sair and brought them through the jacket sleeves. Naruto bent down and grabbed two straps near her hips and pulled them up, apparently they rolled the jacket up from the inside to adjust the length of the bottom. After several seconds of adjustments, he tapped Sair on the back, having her turn to face him. "Sair, I want you to stay under that jacket at all times, okay?" She nodded to him again, still making sure not to make a sound.

Hinata still stared at him with dumbstruck eyes, "Ano, Naruto, am I supposed to carry her the whole time? How will I fight?"

"You wont."He looked her straight in the eyes, "You just need to protect her." He said, placing his hand on Sair's head and mussing her hair slightly.

He reached up and pressed the back of the earbead in, "Ten Ten, can you tell me what's going on around us and the last door?" An awkward, gurgling static buzzed into their ears, he figured it was interference because he could kind of hear some speech.

"Ten Ten, I can't hear you, repeat that."

The gurgling static continued for a little bit until it eventually stopped, leaving the com silent a moment before a cough was heard on the other end, followed by Ten Ten's voice, "Sorry about that, the clip came loose and it slipped off. What'd you want?"

He sighed in relief, glad that nothing was wrong and repeated his question to her. The radio went silent for a few moments before it perked up again with her reply, "There's nothing around you guys and it looks like it's a clear run to the sealed room, all the patrols seem to be moving away from there at the moment."

"Run? Why would we run there when we could be found at any moment while on foot."

Her voice came back a little surprised, "Well why wouldn't you? There's no one that'll be in the way and it's much faster than slowly snooping around."

He looked to the others, from the looks on their faces, Kiba and Sakura seemed to like the idea while Hinata was impartial, Sasuke however, shook his head to them in disagreement, "It may not have anyone now, but when it does, we'll have trouble."

"I agree, but we're also running out of time." He pressed in the earbead again to transit. "Give us the route Ten Ten."

Once again the radio delayed, but after several moments, the crackled back to life, "Follow the hallway on your right down about 50 meters, then turn left and there will be another right turn bout 20 meters down, after that the door is at the end of the hall."

"And you're sure that there are no patrols going through that area?" Naruto still needed to finish convincing Sasuke as well as himself that this was a safe idea.

"If their patrols keep the same schedule they've been following, then no one should be back there for at least 10 minutes. Just do what you need to fast and there should be no problems getting out."

Naruto and Sasuke looked to each other warily, they both knew that they needed to hurry up, but the risk was still hefty. After a moment, Sasuke slumped his shoulders and shook his head in annoyance, "Fine, fine, let's do this fast so we can be in and out before the patrols get back."

"Sounds good, Kiba, lead the way." Kiba nodded in response and started running off down the instructed hallway with the others close behind.

Naruto hung back to keep watch over Hinata, since she was running slower due to her load. After a completely uneventful minute of running, they arrived at what appeared to be a stone fire door, with no handle and several runes in its center. The door was in a deserted and disturbingly quiet corner of the facility, the floor was grimy with scuffled footprints, while the walls were coated in disturbing amounts of mold and mildew.

"Sasuke, crack the seal quickly. I don't like this place and don't want to be here longer than I need to be." Sasuke quickly moved to the door and started forcing chakra on different wavelengths into the seal to disable it, Sakura moved behind him to watch his back as the other three spread out around the area.

The seconds slowly ticked by, they waited on baited breath for Sasuke to finish with the seal so that they could get in and run as soon as possible.

Sasuke was almost finished when their headsets crackled on again, but heavy with static, the wing they were in must have been far from the security room.

It crackled again, "Na....o.....un......ts.......r....p."

Naruto adjusted the headset, trying to boost his signal, but all he kept getting was Ten Ten's voice in static. Finally he got irritated at the weak signal and pulled out his own walkie talkie, he didn't like having to use these since they were significantly louder and more noticeable than the headsets, but at least their signal range was longer. He turned the volume low and adjusted the setting to the correct frequency, then switched it on. The crackling sound of bad reception wasn't there anymore, but he still couldn't hear what she was saying, so he turned up the volume a bit and spoke into the mouthpiece, "What'd you say Ten Ten?"

A wet cough followed by the sound of someone spitting out a mouthful of water came over the radio of which Naruto hoped would not be carried down the halls. Naruto rolled his eyes at the new delay, "Ten Ten, get yourself together, what's wrong?"

The air filled with a loud cracking sound from Sasuke as he released a discharge of chakra, fracturing the seal so that it dissipated in a quick wash of flame along the door.

"Run..." Ten Ten's subdued voice came over the radio, a mild gurgling accompanying her.

Naruto's eyes shot wide as he turned around to face Sasuke whose one exposed eye had also flared, "Shit!"

A moment passed where no one could really figure out what to do, while they stood still, a quiet sizzling could be heard. A moment later, the door that Sasuke had been working on blew out, sending the massive stone slab spinning down the corridor.

Sasuke immediately rolled out of the way of the object and blast, only allowing a light wash of flames to even touch him, Sakura however had been just behind him and was unable to move completely out of the way in time. In mid jump, the spinning slab caught her left shoulder, and with a sickening crunch spun her around so that she was caught by the backwards rotation of the door. The second impact struck her shins on an upward spin and threw her backwards like a rag doll into the stone wall several feet behind her. When she hit, blood splattered along the cold, rock wall before she slid back down and slumped to the ground.

Seeing the massive door twirling towards him with lethal intention, Naruto grabbed Hinata around the waist and tried jump out of the way. The idea would have worked flawlessly, if he hadn't forgotten about the extra weight of Sair who was still holding onto Hinata beneath her coat. As a result, when the door flew past, the corner of it clipped the back of Naruto's ankle snapping it like a twig and throwing the three of them back against the ground. Kiba being the furthest away from the door, nimbly jumped to the side and out of harms way.

Hinata grunted as she bounced off the ground, trying to absorb the impact from the child who still keeping to her word, wasn't making a sound. She was however gripping Hinata much tighter than she needed to, causing the Hyuga a fair amount of discomfort.

After the door smashed further down the hall, Sasuke ran to Sakura while Hinata checked on Naruto and Kiba kept watch, they needed to be certain that they could move them before they could make their escape.

Sasuke's face paled more than usual as he looked over Sakura, he wasn't very good with medical and analysis jutsus, but he didn't think he really needed them. He checked her pulse quickly, praying that the worst hadn't happened, to which he let out a sigh of relief. Though it was weak, she had a steady heartbeat. He shifted her lightly so he could check out her arm and upper torso without aggrivating the wounds. Her left shoulder blade was shattered causing multiple bone shards to tear through the surface, in addition her collar bone, sternum, and four ribs were broken causing her to have difficulties breathing. He pushed up her hair to see a fair amount of blood, it was beginning to clot, but apparently she had torn open her scalp when her head had hit the wall.

He rested her back against the and looked to her legs, he had been so worried about damage to her upper torso, that he hadn't thought about her lower torso, he regretted this delay when he looked down. At first glance it appeared as though she were sitting uncomfortably on her legs, however when he looked closer, he saw that she was certainly sitting on her legs, but they weren't bent at the knees, they were bent 4 inches below the knees and blood was pouring out beneath her.

In a panic, he grabbed for her medical satchel and started rummaging through it, tossing anything useless aside, several jars shattered as he threw them out of the bag. Even though it only took seconds, it felt like hours had passed as he pulled out a bundle of spare ribbon she kept for her hair in case of emergency surgery. He pulled off two and quickly tied them tightly around the highest part of her thighs, he let out a sigh of relief as the arterial bleeding slowed. He stuffed a blood staunching pill into her mouth and rubbed her throat, forcing her to swallow the pill, it wasn't hospital care but it was the best he could do at the moment.

Sasuke stood, relieved and turned to check on the others, Kiba was continuously glancing over his shoulder to check on the status of the other four, while Hinata was striking several pressure points on Naruto's leg to staunch the bleeding from his leg. Naruto was face down on the ground, gritting his teeth against the pain, his right ankle had been snapped backwards so that the flat of his foot was perpendicular to the length of his leg.

"Naruto," she asked after having struck the last point to numb and stop blood flow to his leg, "can you move?"

"Yeah, I'll live." He pushed himself up into a sitting position with his legs out. He turned to look at Sasuke, a look of worry evident, "Is she alright?"

Sasuke shook his head, "No, but she'll live for now, we need to get her back to Konoha immediately."

Kiba turned to them both, "Then what are we waiting for, let's g..." There was a loud cracking sound as Kiba stopped mid sentence. They looked at him in surprise as he dropped to his knees, struggling to breath.

Hinata stood looked around, no one else was in the hallway, so she hastily walked over to Kiba and kneeled down in front of him. "Kiba, what's wrong?" She put her hand against his face and felt his skin was clammy with sweat and twitching repeatedly from some kind of pain.

She heard another loud crack, but this time it was a quick sequence of three of them. She didn't have time to think about it as Naruto came hurtling out of nowhere, catching both of them and slamming against the wall.

After hitting the wall, Kiba slumped face forward to the ground while still struggling for breath, at which point, Hinata saw the large amount of blood coming from his back. She reached out to touch the wound when they heard another loud crack came and something hit the side of her forearm hard, throwing her back to the ground. She slid up the sleeve of the jacket she was wearing and saw a bleeding welt where she had felt the impact.

Not even thinking, she stood up and turned to Sasuke who had slid Sakura around the corner and was now peering around it to look for the potential origin of the attacks. When he saw her stand up without thinking of the consequences he yelled at her, interrupting her questioning thoughts, "GET THE HELL DOWN!"

The next sequence of events played out very slowly in her mind. First was her dawning realization of having made a very, very stupid mistake. Second was the two loud cracks she heard. Third was two arms encircling her waste and something pressing against the length of her back. Fourth was two dull impacts, one to her back around her stomach area, the second to the back of her right thigh. Lastly was the sight of Naruto, sliding off her back to the ground and no longer moving.

In a flash, Sasuke was in front of her, holding out his hand as a blue wall, the size of the hallway appeared. "Shit! Hinata, make sure that idiot's alive." Several more loud cracks accompanied Hinata's nodding as small pellets could be seen bouncing off the wall and rolling away.

She dropped to her knees beside the downed Naruto, seeing a bleeding hole on his lower abdomen and another on his thigh, though after activating her blood limit to see his internal damages, she deemed the leg damage was not substantial. She looked curiously for a moment at the spiral seal of chakra repeatedly flaring on his stomach, but decided she could find out about that later, there were more pressing matters to attend to. Looking around the spiral of chakra, she saw that whatever had struck Naruto had broken through his lowest vertebrae, paralyzing him from the waist down. If they didn't get him back to the Hokage soon, it was likely that the damage would be permanent. She brushed some drops of cold sweat from his forehead and saw that his eyes were rolled back in his head, she figured he had passed out from the pain.

"Mommy?" came a whisper from within her coat, pulling her attention away from her examination, "Is the orange man going to be alright?"

She ground her teeth while thinking of the best way to reply to the two pleading eyes starring up at her, the only thing she could bring herself to say in the end was, "Hopefully."

She turned to face Sasuke who was sweating profusely in the effort it took to maintain his chakra shield, "Whatever hit him fractured his lowest vertebrae, we're going to have to carry him out of here."

"Shit!" He was losing control his chakra shield, it would flicker sporadically at it's edges, momentarily opening small gaps. "Got any ideas Hinata, cause I'm running dry. I can only hold this shield for another minute or two, and even if we were able to escape, I'm sure the fires are spreading and the explosives have gone off. On top of all that the wounded outweigh the able bodied and we still don't know if Ten Ten is alive."

"Oh, your friend is still alive... barely, but she is alive." A voice echoed from far off on the other side of Sasuke's shield, "She put up quite a fight as well. She killed six of my men even after they got the drop on her." A tall thin man with ratty brown hair stepped out of a shadow a ways down the hall and slowly began approaching their shield.

"And you would be?" Sasuke questioned in a mocking tone, in hopes to buy extra time.

"Ah, I go by many names, but you may call me Naguchi." He smiled like a child at an amusement park, deep and disturbing amber eyes twinkling. "So how do you like the effects of our new toys?"

"Toys?" Replied Hinata, confused at the reference.

"Yes, your two male friends seem to have enjoyed them." He giggled gleefully to himself.

"I am definitely not enjoying this." Said the blonde who had apparently not lost consciousness.

Hinata turned in surprise and quickly placed a hand on his chest to stop him from standing, "Don't move, whatever hit you cracked your spine, if you try to move the damage will probably be permanent."

Naruto gently grabbed her wrist and slid her hand off of his chest, then very slowly and shakily stood up, drawing impressed and confused looks from the other three onlookers.

Hinata just stared for a moment before she could bring herself to talk again, "Naruto... how?" She looked down at his ankle that less than a minute ago had been snapped clean backwards but was now flat and set properly.

He just laughed at the question, "I'll tell you some day Hinata, I promise, until then just stick with saying I heal really fast."

Sasuke arched his eyebrow at him, "Your foot was almost backwards less than three minutes ago, and now you're standing."

He sighed, now was not the time to be questioned, "I'll tell you what," he sighed sadly to himself, "I'll tell you two all about it when we get home, acceptable for you?" He saw Sasuke nod, so he moved his attention back to his task at hand. Turning to face Naguchi, he stumbled slightly as he still wasn't able to walk properly yet. "So what did you do with the two from the sand?"

"Ah, so that's why you were here." The man looked beside himself with glee, "Well, have you ever heard the story where people who eat their enemies can gain their strengths?" The look of disgust that crossed Naruto's face answered the question for him, so he continued, "Well it unfortunately doesn't work, however using certain techniques that I've found allow me to gain a persons knowledge if I eat a part of them."

Naruto felt the bile rise in his throat, but held it down, however the sound of Hinata behind him gagging made it all the more difficult to resist. "So," He swallowed down the once again rising tide, "You ate them?"

"Mostly, yes. There are a lot of people here who needed to benefit from their knowledge."

Naruto stumbled forward so that he stood in just behind the now heavily flickering blue wall, "You're a sick man."

Naguchi grinned even wider, "Why thank you, but complimenting me will get you nowhere, when your pretty little shield comes down, we're going to take you in and take what we need from you. Then if you're still alive, maybe we'll experiment on you as well."

"You really think we'd let you take us?" Sasuke interjected spitefully.

"Willingly, no. But I'm sure by now you should have at least started to notice how heavy the air is and how hard it is to breath."

The three looked around, studying their own breathing for a moment. Their breathing had become quick and shallow, if it hadn't been for the suppressants they had taken, they'd probably already be unconscious, as it was it was probably only a matter of time.

Naguchi cackled at their looks of realization, "You seem fairly resistant to the poison, but it should only need another minute or two before you lose consciousness, the ventilation system is actually quite wonderful for delivering poisons around the complex." Then to his amazement, Naruto smiled broadly.

"Then I have one more question for you," Naguchi was still surprised by Naruto's immediate change in demeanor so he took two steps back from the wall and waited for the blonde to speak, "Are you the only one who knows how to perform the technique to gain others knowledge?"

"I'm the only one who can do it safely, but others know the theo..." With an ear-splitting screech the chakra shield shattered and vanished as a streak of blonde and orange leapt through it and landed in front of Naguchi, his hands folded into a seal.

"Thanks, that's all I needed to know, Toppuu Saikuron no Jutsu!" He slammed his palm into the ground and a whirling mass of wind tore up into the ceiling, encircling the two and blocking them from sight. The whirlwind expanded to fill the width of the hall and began to grow in height, drilling into the ceiling. While the massive whirlwind ground through stone and chiseled at the walls. They could hear the loud cracks from the weapons that the enemy had been using go off multiple times, mingling with the grinding sound of the wind. A moment later, the whirlwind streaked red as a spatter of liquid was tossed from it, then returned to it's opaque white color.

Sasuke slumped to his knees, exhausted but still trying to figure a way out of the current situation, "Hey Hinata."

"Yes?" She breathed heavily, she wanted to help Naruto, but she couldn't move her legs anymore from the poison in the air.

"Do you have any ideas?" His own breathing was becoming worse, he could still move though, if only a little.

She looked off towards the massive, opaque spire of wind that Naruto had formed, "None." She said heavy hearted, "I don't even know how he can keep fighting at this point," She unconsciously wrapped her arms around the small sleeping form that was huddled inside her coat.

Sasuke turned to stare at it as well, wondering why the bastard had gone and put up his last line of defense. They had run out of luck and he couldn't think of any way that they could get out in their current condition.

The loud crack of their weapons continued, but among the sounds of the wind and weapons, Sasuke began to hear a separate grinding sound coming from above. He watched the ceiling intently, sparing only an occasional glance at Hinata who had slipped into a half conscious state. Slowly, he saw cracks begin to form along the ceiling as bits of stone began to crumble above them, he stood and moved back further, half dragging Hinata along so that nothing would fall on her.

After several more seconds, what sounded like an explosive tag went off and ceiling debris cascaded down near where they were just before. He saw two people drop down among the debris cloud and after a moment of dust clearing, he saw that it was Naruto... twice.

"What the hell?" Sasuke couldn't think of anything else to say.

The Naruto's grinned at his shock as one of them spoke, "You forgot that I replaced two patrols. Anyway, I was able to figure out where you were because of her." He pointed at Hinata who was still half conscious from the poisons effects.

Sasuke was about to question this when it dawned on him, "You tracked her by the hair?" he asked as if to verify his thoughts.

Naruto nodded as the other clone quickly moved to grab Sakura, "You're getting out of here now, we summoned Gamabunta outside and he'll take you all back to Konoha as fast as possible."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes at the blonde, "You're not coming are you?"

Naruto's smile faded, "I can't, as it is I'm forcing myself to stay conscious to keep the shield up and these clones long enough to get you out, and summoning big gama pretty much tapped me out. We're going to help you guys get out and probably don't have more than another few minutes." Two more Narutos dropped down the hole and went to pick up Kiba and Hinata. "Come on Sasuke, get up there, we're on a time limit."

Sasuke wanted to fight back against Naruto's decision, but he couldn't, he was right and there was no other way that he could think of. He started to climb through the whole but looked back, "You promised you'd tell us about, your oddities when we got back."

Naruto looked away, "Think of it as a mystery to remember me by after I'm gone."

Sasuke wanted to snap, but he couldn't, he just looked away and climbed up the hole.

Outside, the massive form of Gamabunta took up much of the landscape, Sasuke saw Kiba and Sakura were tied down to the massive frogs coat and the four clones were standing around waiting. A moment later, the last two clones emerged from the hole, one carrying Hinata who was gradually waking up, and the other carrying Sair who unaware of the situation, snuggled comfortably into Naruto's chest.

Sasuke looked up at the clone carrying Sair, "Ten Ten?"

He looked away, "I have no way of finding her, and we're not going to last long enough to search the facility. I'm sorry."

Sasuke had expected that answer, but needed someone else to say it. Sasuke walked up to him and placed a hand on his shoulder, "You know I can't forgive you for this." The clone just nodded, "If I didn't know that you'd knock me out and stuff me on the giant frog, I wouldn't let you send us out of here without you."

Naruto betrayed his morose expression and smirked, "You know I would. Anyway, go, please... and tell Neji... I'm sorry."

Sasuke understood, he slipped the little girl into his own arms and walked off towards the waiting toad as the empty handed clone puffed away into smoke.

The remaining Naruto lightly shook Hinata awake, she wasn't to deep in sleep so she woke up easily. Groggily, she reached up to Naruto, putting a hand on his cheek to feel if he was real, "Naruto? I had a dream that something bad happened."

Naruto set her down on her feet, her hand still against his face, "It did." He reached up and gently moved her hand from his face. "I'm not coming back Hinata, I can't. I'm keeping my clones for the moment so I can say my goodbyes."

"Your what?" Her eyes widened in dawning realization of his words meaning, "B-b-b-but Na-Naruto, you c-c-can't stay!" She grabbed at his collar, pleading, pulling him down to face her.

He tried to turn away, but she kept forcing him to look at her, "I'm sorry Hinata, there's nothing I can do."

Tears leaked down her cheeks, all her normal elegant composure completely lost as she shook him by the collar and yelled at him "DAMN IT! Why? I don't want you to go! I want you to stay with me! I don't want to lose you..." Her words surprised him and hit hard, He slid his arms around her shoulders and pulled her into a tight embrace.

"I'm sorry Hinata, I have no choice. Because of me we've already lost one, I can't let anyone else get hurt. Apologize to your cousin for me... and tell Sakura I'm sorry I couldn't say goodbye." He released her so that he could step away, but as soon as he did, her arms snapped around his waist and she burrowed her head into his chest.

He kneeled down, sliding her grip further up so that it was just beneath his arms and her head was on his shoulder, and began to stroke her hair to calm her. He knew he was running out of time, but he had to get her to go willingly.

"Hinata." She made some kind of muffled noise against his shoulder to state she was listening. "There are others who need you right now and if you're willing, I want to give you one last order on this mission."

She pulled back her head to look him in the eyes, they were sad but still as intense as always, "Anything!" She stated resolutely.

He was glad to have people like Hinata who respected and cared about him, "I want you to take care of Sair." She blinked, confused as to why he was asking her to do this. He recognized the look on her face and continued, "She's an orphan, when everything's said and done, she'll have to go through life the same way I did. She's already had to see such horrible things, I want her to at least be happy..."

She stared at him, not wanting to move, not wanting to admit or accept anything, but after a moment, she let go of him and stepped back. She looked to the ground, "I'll convince my father to allow me to take care of her."

He smiled, "Thank you Hinata. You need to go... I'm running out of juice."

She started to turn away, but stopped, "This is the last time I'm going to see you isn't it..."

He stood up straight again, not wanting to answer but inevitably caved under the mounting pressure, "Yes." was all he could bring himself to say.

In an instant, he was winded and on the ground, Hinata kneeling on his chest. She leaned down and kissed him chastely on the lips before rolling off of him and running towards the others, his own coat flapping around on her shoulders as she ran away.

He watching the disappearing figure, a mixture a happiness and regret mingling in his eyes as he whispered to himself, "Goodbye... Hinata." then disappeared in a puff of smoke.

* * *

Toppuu Saikuron no Jutsu - Cyclonic Blast

How to pronounce Sair's name, take the word "Hair" and replace the H with an S.

Hope you're still enjoying, I'll try to put up some more chapters tomorrow. So far I have 9 chapters written all told, but I'm still having some trouble with the tenth. Hopefully with rereading and reposting this as well as some new comments, I'll break my writers block.

Thanks for reading


	4. We're home?

With the impact of every landing, they were jarred back an forth and even though Gamabunta's jumps cleared roughly half a mile each, there were still far to many of them for the critically injured among them.

Before leaving, Sasuke had set Sakura's legs so that they'd be straight, but considering the substantial damage combined with the rush job and lack of useful materials, it wasn't that great a job. After leaving, Sasuke had taken up a seat beside Sakura's prone form and several times since they had left, he had force fed her some soldier pills to keep her heart beating and to replenish blood, but he had already passed the maximum safe dose and they were starting to lose effect.

Hinata sat near Kiba as she held Sair's sleeping form, watching him and praying that he continued to breath until they got back to Konoha so that he could receive proper care. Kiba had a collapsed lung and neither she nor Sasuke had any idea on how to treat it, she just stayed nearby in case he needed resuscitation.

It had only been a little over two hours since they had left, but she didn't feel that their return to Konoha could be fast enough. If they had travelled on foot, it would have taken at least two days and without a doubt Sakura would have died, likely Kiba would have as well.

Part of her wished she was still back at the facility, not wanting to leave Naruto and Ten Ten behind, but she knew it would have been impossible to save them. At least in the end she had been able to in some way express how she felt about him, she hoped that he was happy in the end. Again she felt the tears welling and wanting to be released, but she held strong against it and was able to resist.

Sair stirred in her arms, obviously awoken by the multiple harsh landings and rolled around to look up at Hinata, when she did, her eyes lit up as she saw the bright sky overhead.

"Mommy, the nice man didn't lie to Sair." She threw herself into Hinata's chest, happily wrapping her arms around, "Can Sair hug the nice man too mommy?" She looked up expectantly at Hinata.

Hinata's eyes began to water, "Shit" she said, her throat choking it off slightly changing Sair's look from expectant to worried. Hinata tried to wipe away the tears, but they continued to flow no matter how much she removed them.

"Mommy?"

"Stop... please Sair, stop." What little composure she had left was scrounging to control her emotions. Sair stood up, distracting Hinata from her own self pity and amazing her that the little girl had perfect balance on a giant toad leaping through the air, but it was her next question that surprised her more.

"Where's Sair's mommy?" She stared at Hinata accusingly, her blood red eyes seeming to burrow in.

Hinata watched Sair a moment, hoping that the little girl was just confused, but she knew that wasn't the case. With a deep sigh, she wiped away some residual tears and thanked god that even though it was a bad subject, she was being distracted from Naruto for the moment. "Can I ask how you figured out Sair?"

Sair eyed her warily a moment before deciding that she could explain herself, "Mommy never calls Sair, Sair. She only calls Sair, baby or Sa-chan."

Hinata thought back to when she first met Sair and her justification made sense, just before had been the first time she had called Sair by her name. With a small nod of understanding to the little girl, she decided it was time to explain herself, at least a little bit, "Sair, my name is Hyuga Hinata. There are a lot of things I'm going to need to explain to you, but I don't think we should deal with that right now. Can we talk about it after we arrive in Konoha? I promise you we're not trying to hurt you or do anything bad to you." She prayed that the girl would understand the urgency of this. She had no problem explaining the scenario to Sair, it would be difficult, but there shouldn't be too many major problems. However discussing with a distressed child while rushing back to town for urgent medical attention while on the back of a giant toad, wasn't on her to do list.

Sair pursed her lips, apparently thinking on what Hinata had asked her, it only took her a moment before she smiled over at Hinata, "Okay. Sair doesn't like having to wait, but Hinata was nice to Sair the whole time so Sair will trust Hinata to tell her later." Hinata couldn't help but smile a little bit as Sair moved back and curled up in Hinata's lap. "How long does Sair need to wait?" Her voice echoed from the confines of Hinata's coat.

"Probably another hour or two, can you wait that long? We should at least be back in Konoha in the next half hour to an hour."

As expected, this was not enough to sate the young girl as her voice chimed up again, "If we get there in half an hour why does Sair need to wait two hours?"

Hinata wrapped her arms tighter around the little girl, laughing to herself at the simplicity of a child's logic, "Because after we get back, the first thing that we need to do is get these two to the hospital, then have someone take a look at you to make sure your healthy, then we will need to see the Hokage." Sair scrunched her face in discontent, but let the subject drop.

"Hinata?" Came the girls voice again after several seconds of silence.

"Yes?"

"Why are we flying?" Hinata choked on a laugh, this was going to be interesting to explain.

* * *

The grass was still green, the afternoon air was crisp, the trees gracefully shed their leaves, and not a single person had walked past all day, this was looking up to be a great day for slacking off. At the moment, Shikimaru was laying down in the grass staring up at the sky with a stick of grass hanging from his lower lip. A contented sigh left his lips as a light wind played over him, gracefully pushing the clouds across the sky.

"Hey pineapple head, can you actually do something for once? Like maybe, stand up, or take a watch? You know, things that you're supposed to be doing?" Barked Ino's commanding voice from beside the gate, shattering his calm and peacful world for the third time in the last hour.

"Well, it was nice until you started to talk." He thought to himself, being careful not to left those thoughts reach the surface, since if they did he'd be likely to experience a very unpleasant awakening one of these days.

"Relax Ino." He spoke in a bored tone, not really caring that she was getting more annoyed with him by the moment, "There are no expected caravans and nobody of any import is supposed to be arriving for another two days. Just come and sit down with me, relax for a while and everything will seem better."

Ino walked the several feet around and glared down at him, Shikimaru just smiled up at her, her long ponytail draping over one shoulder and hanging down practically to the ground. He bat the length of hair lightly with his hand making it sway like a pendulum, drawing an irritated snort from his blonde companion.

He was expecting her to yell at him a bit, then probably kick him in the ribs before storming off, but much to his amusement she just sighed dejectedly and plopped down so that she was lying against him with her head on his stomach. He placed his arm down across her chest in an affectionate manner, enjoying the physical contact and calm silence.

She reached up and took his hand, seeming content to just lay there despite their responsibilities, "It really is boring today, isn't it?" she sighed to herself once again as she realized more and more that she was becoming just as lazy as him.

"At least you have somewhat pleasant company." Even though she wasn't facing him, she could tell he was smiling smugly at his own cockiness.

She bit her lip to prevent herself from retorting as she wanted, instead she squeezed his hand lightly and rolled herself over so she could look at him, "You really are an idiot some days, even denser than Naruto I'd say." Shikimaru arched his eyebrow disbelievingly at her comment, seeing this she continued, "Well lately he's been really stoic and fairly mature... okay, well I've heard stories of people saying he can act mature. Around us he still acts like the same old dumb blonde. And if I hear you even begin to mutter something about dumb blonde, then it's very likely that you wont live to regret it." She said with a combined glare and pout.

Looking at her odd expression, he let out a deep laugh before bringing up his free hand to run across her hair, "Don't worry about that, anyone who knows you wouldn't be that stupid... after all, I know what you can do better than anyone."

She giggled, covering her mouth so that hopefully he wouldn't notice, "We really should get back to work, sure we can see from here, but if someone comes by we could get in trouble."

He snorted as he tried to suppress his own laughter, "Come on, nobody is even anywhere near the gate and we could likely sense them coming a mile away." A long shadow gradually stretched across the field and over the two of them. Looking up, he thought to himself that maybe there'd be some nice clouds passing over, however he had not ben expecting what he saw.

Ino saw his eyes widen in surprise as he rolled to his feet, scooping her up in the process and jumped back against the wall. She turned her head to face the way he was looking and saw a massive object falling out of the sky.

The sounds of splintering treed and shattering stone echoed as the massive form of Gamabunta landed less than 50 feet from the entrance. Ino slipped out of Shikimaru's grip and back to the ground, all the while staring up at the massive form of the toad.

"Ummm," She spoke up to the giant creature since Shikimaru appeared to still be stunned, "why are you here... Sir?"

One giant yellow eye looked down at her, taking in her attire and appearance, then muttered one word as though he was dismissing her entirely, "Passengers."

As if in response to his statement, Hinata and Sasuke jumped from it's back each one supporting the shoulder of a very pale looking Kiba. Sasuke unceremoniously dropped him and leapt back on top of the toad, leaving Hinata to support Kiba's bulk herself.

"A little help here?" Came Hinata's strained voice as the supported body threatened to pull her to the ground.

Shikimaru, snapped from his utter confusion, rushed over to take his other shoulder, looking at her pale and tired looking face, he decided to ask, "What happened, where are the others?" Her reaction was unexpected as her face set into a hardened emotionless expression.

"Later, first we need to get these two to the hospital." Continuing to surprise to the onlookers, she looked up to Ino and in a commanding voice that defied her normal quiet demeanor, "Ino, get the Hokage now! Tell her to meet us at the hospital immediately." She had wanted to say it was Sakura that was injured, but she realized that if she had said that, the girl would have probably panicked and not wanted to leave them.

Ino's brain had stopped processing for a moment, the meek little Hinata had grown a backbone and was using it, "What ha..."

Hinata cut in angrily, "Just shut up and go! The longer you wait the more likely they are to die, now GO!" Pushed back from her words, Ino quickly turned and disappeared into the gate. Hinata sighed, her hardened look melting back into a very distressed one.

Shikimaru noticed her change in appearance and took in the oddities of it, she was wearing Naruto's coat and had a massive bulge over her stomach as though she were six months overdue on a pregnancy.

She turned and saw him watching her intently, then in realization that he was examining her over-large coat, she laughed and looked down into her coat, "Sair, could you move to my back? I need to support him with both hands."

Continuing to confuse the genius, a voice replied, "Sure mommy." as a dirty little girl slid out of the bottom of Hinata's jacket, moved around behind her and hopped up onto her back.

Hinata brought her now free arm around so that she could support Kiba a little better, then looking up to Shikimaru, she urged him forward, "Come on, we need to get him to the hospital fast, Sasuke will be by with Sakura once he can move her safely."

Shikimaru was confused and simply nodded as they entered the gate and began to move through town in the direction of the hospital.

He kept looking behind Kiba's slumped head at the little girl, happily clinging to the back of Hinata's neck, her feet dangling playfully. The two looked like mother and daughter save for the girls rather surprising red eyes, but even those in a weird way seemed to match Hinata's pale lavender ones.

She was glad that he seemed to be too stunned to ask questions, she was going to be answering far more than she wanted to over the next several hours anyway and she wasn't looking to start before Sakura and Kiba's lives were in the clear.

They set a quick pace, moving with little effort through the crowded streets of the city. People knew them so it was rare that they needed to speak to have the crowds part to let them through with their obviously wounded team member. Things like this were in fact not an uncommon occurrence, though many a people did look oddly at the small child hanging from Hinata's neck.

Several minutes later they walked in through the slate grey double doors of Konoha hospital, several patients sat at chairs in the waiting room with various states of simple injuries. After a quick scan, she thanked god that there were no Hyuga present, she wanted to have to deal with clan politics even less than answer the Hokage's questions.

She leaned Kiba over to be supported by Shikimaru to which he understood her movements and set himself to support the brutish wild man better as she slipped off of him and made her way to the desk.

The nurse looked up at Hinata, readying to ask her well practiced "What's wrong with you" question when she was stopped by the intensity of Hinata's eyes.

"You need two open operating rooms now, the Hokage should be here soon." Hinata left no room for argument as the woman could only nod as she stood and issued several orders to a few of the nurses behind her before moving around the desk to Hinata. After seeing them start getting ready, Hinata turned away from the desk and walked back to Kiba, closely followed by the young nurse.

"What happened to him?" She asked Hinata as Shikimaru set him into a chair and she began checking his vitals.

She sighed, this was unfortunately a question that needed to be answered now, "He has a collapsed lung and heavy blood loss, something hit him in the chest a pierced straight through but I don't know if there is any further collateral damage, unfortunately he's the least of your worries." The nurse looked at her uncertainly, this man was seriously injured and it wasn't a good idea to just brush off his injuries as something to not worry about.

"Where's the second one?"

"She'll be here soon. Shikimaru," He perked up a bit as he was called on, "Help the nurse get him onto a bed, I need to find Sasuke." She walked straight past the two confused people back out the door. Once outside, she activated her blood limit and began to scour the area from a birds eye view, it took a minute, but eventually she caught sight of Sasuke and Shino, who were quickly moving over the building tops on a small cloud of Shino's destruction bugs that were supporting Sakura in a stable position. She sighed in relief as she changed the target of her search and began to check the path between the hospital and the Hokage tower, she found her target much faster this time as she caught site of two blonde women b-lining it for the hospital.

The first to arrive were Shino and Sasuke who both hopped off the small insect cloud as it swooped low to the ground, "I ran into him near the gate so I helped, tell me the rest later." Shino said calmly as he nodded to her. She couldn't tell what his reaction was at the moment due to his damned full hood, but was thankful that he had run into Sasuke and decided to help him.

Sasuke looked to her intently, "Is she here yet?"

Hinata shook her head lightly, "She's coming now, she'll be here within the minute."

He sighed in relief as he unconsciously placed a hand protectively over Sakura's stomach, "Good," He turned and leaned down so that his head was right next to her ear and whispered something, Hinata strained her ears to hear what he said, but his voice had been quiet enough to elude her.

Seconds later all three of them looked to the north as they saw a heavily distressed looking Ino followed by a rather disgruntled looking Tsunade sprinting around the corner. "Damn it, what the hell is the bloody emergency?!" Tsunade yelled at them as she stepped within sight of the cloud.

Ino being a step ahead of Tsunade, saw the clouds occupant and condition first, and in conjunction with Hinata's sigh, her reaction was exactly as expected. She panicked.

"Sakura!" She ran forward trying to get to her friend, but Shino's firm arm hooked around her waist from the side, stopping her movement. "What are you doing you idiot, let me go?"

"If you touch her in her current situation, you may kill her." Shino spoke flatly, but the desired effect happened as she immediately stopped trying to get away and just broke down into tears.

Ignoring the overly dramatic girl, Tsunade stepped around so that she could see what was going on, she had already ascertained that the wounded was Sakura by Ino's reactions, but she still didn't know the extent of the actual damages. She didn't take more than a glance at the prone pink haired girl before she rounded on the three coherent ninja in front of her, "Shino, take her to any prepared operating room, do either you two know the extents of her injuries?" Sasuke raised his hand in a casual manner indicating that he did. She grabbed the back of his neck and dragged his face close to hers, "You have two minutes to tell me everything while I prep for surgery, don't forget anything." Flustered and surprised at being dragged in such a manner, he nodded fervently as the two of them marched through the front door.

Shino released Ino so that she could kneel on the ground and turned to Hinata, "Take care of her." he said as he followed shortly behind the other two, his cloud of insects supporting the critical Sakura just behind him.

Several minutes passed in silence where Hinata simply sat in the courtyard cradling Ino's head in her lap, Sair decided it was best to stay out of the way for the moment so she remained quiet and out of sight, playing in the dirt in Hinata's shadow. Eventually, Shikimaru exited the building and upon seeing the three of them, walked over to the small group sitting in the cold dirt of the hospital courtyard.

Leaning down, he spoke in a reassuring tone as he slid his arms beneath Ino and picked her up to his chest, "I'll take her home... good luck Hinata, I'm not seeing an overly restful next few days in your future." Looking down at the tear streaked woman huddled up against him he sighed to himself, "I get the feeling I'm not going to be able to leave her side for the next few days, so I'll talk to you later on. Also, you should give him back his coat at some point, he'll probably be feeling pretty naked without it."

Shikimaru was confused and surprised by Hinata's actions as she pulled her hands forward around the opening of her jacket and hugged it to herself without saying a word. He decided it was definitely not something to ask now and with no more than a slight nod, wandered off in the direction of Ino's apartment.

After the two were gone from sight, Sair walked around in front of Hinata and watched her curiously as she huddled her jacket against herself. Thinking nothing of it, she poked Hinata in the shoulder, making her presence known, and said flatly, "I'm hungry."

The panic she was feeling disappeared in a wash of momentary confusion as Hinata watched the little girl in front of her. After a moment, she quirked of a smile and leaned forward, picking Sair up and putting her back around her shoulders. "Fine, but before that, let's get you something to actually wear. Your smock stinks." She could practically feel the frown on the girls face, but she continued, "Don't worry, I only plan on getting you something simple so we can throw that rag out, after that we'll grab something to eat then come back here."

Sair was still displeased that food would need to wait, but decided that it would come soon enough, "Deal." she replied from Hinata's back.

Hinata distracted herself from the days events by explaining to Sair, various things about the city as they moved to the trade district, closer to the center of town. When they got there, they entered an old clothing shop that was run by stooped old grey haired woman and a young red haired boy, probably no more than fourteen.

"Ah, Hyuga-sama, to what do we owe the pleasure of your visit today?" The young man smiled as he stepped forward to greet her.

Sair looked at the man oddly from over Hinata's shoulder, "Sair don't understand, why does he know you mommy?"

At Sair's statement, the boy stopped, noticing the girl for the first time and opened his mouth to ask something, but was silenced when Hinata raised her hand to halt him, "It's not whatever you're thinking, but don't worry about it." She reached around and pulled Sair off her shoulders, placing her, sitting on the floor in front of herself, "These people supply all the traditional clothing for my families compound, though they only sell yukatas and kimonos, so anyone on active duty tends to get their own things for outside of home." She looked back up at the man in front of her, "All I need today is a simple child's yukata for her until I'm able to get her normal clothing, it's to much of a hassle to try and find something to fit her right now."

"Is that all?" The old woman exclaimed from behind her counter, "Tenchi, go grab a spare one from the back, and don't worry about the cost Hyuga-sama," Her voice stopped Hinata as she reached for her wallet. "Just bring it back once you've gotten what you need."

"Thank you Haruka-san." Hinata spoke as she bowed respectfully to the older woman. The young man, obviously thinking nothing particular about this sequence of events, wandered off into a back room.

Sair amused herself with a large spool of thread of which she repeatedly wound and unwound, while Hinata stood around listening to the old woman continuously speak of the poor state of her health. Wistfully she looked down at Sair amusing herself so effortlessly with a bit of string, what she wouldn't give to have no worries again.

A few minutes later, Tenchi came out of the back with a light blue folded yukata under his arm. He handed it to Hinata, smiling cheerfully, "Are you sure there wont be anything else Hyuga-sama?"

She really wished he'd drop the honorific, or at least call her Hinata, but she smiled and accepted the item thankfully, "No, just the use of your changing room so I can help her put it on."

"Of course, of course, go right ahead." Haruka exclaimed, gesturing somewhat wildly in the direction of the stores two curtain covered changing rooms.

Hinata swept Sair up under her arm and walked off towards the changing rooms in the back as Sair struggled slightly to drop back down and return to the spool of thread that she had mournfully left on the ground.

After entering the small side room and closing the curtain, Hinata gracefully plopped Sair down on the ground, "Arms up Sair." She said as she placed the diminutive yukata on a small stool that stood off to the side.

Unconsciously Sair raised her arms, uncertain about the odd order, but came to understand quickly as with a quick flourish she found that Hinata had divested her of her smock. Embarrassment didn't have time to take hold however, since in the brief moment that she was surprised and looking down at herself without garb, Hinata flourished a piece of blue cloth past her eyes and when finished, she was wrapped in a yukata. She looked up in confusion, but Hinata just smiled and pulled her to her feet so that the belt could be properly tied. After several quick tugs to adjust the garment properly, Hinata stepped back to view her work, then with a nod she patted Sair on the head. "Looks good on you."

Sair held out her arms to examine the light blue smooth fabric dangling from her arms, "How'd Hinata do that so fast?"

"I've been wearing traditional clothing since before I could walk, putting it on someone else is a cinch." She ruffled Sair's unkempt hair and opened the curtain, guiding her back into the store.

Hinata waved to the other two as she walked towards the door, "Thank you Haruka, Tenchi, we'll be going now."

"Come back any time." Tenchi waved energetically at the two as they closed the door behind them.

Hinata sighed to herself, Tenchi's evident schoolboy crush really irritated her sometimes. Taking a deep breath, she turned to Sair, "Let's grab something to eat," She had planned on continuing to explain something, but Sair's reaction was instantaneous as she started to cheer and wrapped herself around Hinata's leg. She sighed, "I'll let you choose where we eat Sair, but on one condition." Sair looked up at her wide eyed but silent, allowing Hinata to continue, "You have to walk with me and not hang off of me, okay?"

Sair released her leg and took half a step back smiling, "Sair is agreed." Hinata was confused as her wording was even odder than normal, but didn't have much time to think on it as Sair grabbed her hand and began running in a random direction screaming, "This way, this way!"

The duo navigated several streets, seemingly following the nose of a child until she came to a halt in a more open area with only a few shops around, "Here." shouted Sair, gesturing towards a shack like restaurant.

Hinata looked up where the girl was pointing and bit her lip, why was it that everyone seemed to hate her so much today? It hadn't even been 6 hours since they left Naruto and here she was standing in front of Ichirakous. She felt a wash of bile rise in her throat but she swallowed it back, praying that she could hold it until they were finished here.

Sair dragged the reluctant Hinata through the draping cloth and to the seats where Ayame stood tending to the orders of two other occupants. Sair hopped up onto the stool at the end of the counter as Hinata begrudgingly took the seat beside her, after a minute or so, Ayame finished dealing with her other clients and walked over to the two at the other end.

"Hey Hinata, been a while since we've seen you in here," Ayame greeted her with a smile, "So what'll you two be having?"

Sair bounced on her stool hollering, "Ramen!" Ayame just grinned, being oddly reminded of someone she had known for years as she jotted down a little note on her order pad.

"I'm not feeling that well, so I'll just take some dumplings." Hinata ordered, veiling her discomfort with a warm smile. "Where's your father?"

Ayame laughed at her question, waiving to dismiss it, "The idiot stayed out late to close the store without a jacket, so he's at home with a cold."

Hinata nodded in understanding as Ayame turned and went into the back to start up their orders. She turned and watched Sair as she innocently played with her chopsticks, deftly twirling them around and between her fingers in a rather entertaining display.

Several minutes later, Ayame returned from the back with a large tray laden with bowls and a plate. After a quick stop at her first two customers where she left behind two of the bowls, she walked up to them and placed a large bowl in front of Sair and a plate covered with dumplings in front of Hinata.

Sair, not sparring any kind of thanks, snapped her chopsticks and started eating as soon as the food was placed in front of her. Ayame arched an eyebrow at the girl and looked to Hinata who simply shrugged, it had occurred to Hinata that the girl probably hadn't eaten anything in days, so her ravenous appetite wasn't that out of the ordinary. Two bowls and an amused Ayame later, and the two left the welcoming seats of the ramen stand for the likely unpleasant silence of the hospital.

Sair walked along beside Hinata, happily humming and holding onto her hand as though nothing had happened to her at all in the last week. Hinata felt a twinge of remorse that the girl would likely need to relive everything that had happened to her so that she could recount it all for the Hokage, but there was nothing that could be done. The mission had gone horribly wrong and there was nothing else that could be done about it.

Onlookers thought very little of the small display of holding the girls hand, giving no more than a cursory glance or a greeting before looking away and going about their business. Hinata was glad for this, since it meant she was not likely to become the target of gossip or for her father to find out before she discussed the matter of Sair with him.

Eventually, the two women walked through the front door of the hospital ward that they had been in about an hour and change prior, little seemed to have changed save for a shuffling in of new patients waiting to be admitted. Hinata walked to the nurse at the desk, clearing her throat somewhat to gain her attention.

When the woman looked up and recognized who was standing in front of her, she calmly said, "Go and wait in exam room 6, Hokage-sama should be finished in the next little while."

"Oh, thank you." Was all she could think of to say as she turned down the hallway beside her and headed off towards the location she was told.

She found it after wandering for a little while and walked in with Sair in toe and closing the door behind her, inside there was a small desk with a chair up against the wall and an examination table on the opposite wall.

Time dragged by as Hinata stood around, counting the seconds as they slogged past, Sair however seemed unaffected by the tension as she curiously roamed about the small room. After twenty minutes of standing about, the door opened revealing an exhausted looking Hokage, her hair and stature were frazzled with stress.

"Hokage-sama, how are they?" Hinata leapt forward, not having realized that the tension had been winding up in her since she left.

Tsunade took a step back from the excited Hyuga, somewhat surprised by her uncommon reaction, "Sit." she pointed at the examination table and like a scolded puppy, Hinata hopped up onto the table and faced her. Tsunade approached her and spread her hands in front, activating an analysis jutsu, then gradually began to move over Hinata's entire body.

Hinata was in no mood for this, but she didn't posses the nerve to hurry the Hokage along. After around twenty seconds, she pulled back her hands and looked Hinata directly in the eye.

"Have you even noticed that your wrist is broken Hinata?" Tsunade said bluntly as she grabbed Hinata's wrist, causing her to wince, and pulled back her sleeve to reveal a swelling purple mass just below her left hand. She looked down at her wrist with a bit of amazement, the injury must have been from when she reached out for Kiba and had her hand swatted aside by their ranged weapon.

"Mommy, does that hurt?" Was heard as Sair's head popped up beside the table, she was standing on her toes, staring at the painful looking discoloration on her arm.

Tsunade looked to the little girl the back to Hinata, "Mommy? I'm figuring you'll be enlightening me to this with your report." Hinata shuddered, trying to pull away from the Hokage's intense gaze.

"Of course Hokage-sama, but first... could you please tell me how the others are doing?" Hinata did not like to beg, but she needed to know, she couldn't stand it if anyone else had died.

She felt a bit of pity for the young Hyuga, but at least her news wasn't all bad. She spoke calmly as she slowly began to press her chakra into Hinata's swollen wrist, "They're alive and out of immediate danger, but there will be a lot of recovery." She looked up to gauge her reaction and was pleased to see the sigh of relief, "There is bad news though, Kiba is in a coma, but I expect he will be conscious within the week. Then there's the matter of Sakura, she wont be able to walk for at least another year, and even with continuous treatment, there will be permanent effects. On the plus side however, she is conscious and aware of what's going on."

By the time Tsunade had finished explaining, the swelling in Hinata's wrist had reduced to almost nothing. "Wow! What'd you do?" Came Sair's dumbfounded voice as she had been watching the receding swelling.

Hinata smiled down at Sair, "It's her speciality. Come up here Sair, I said I'd tell you about what happened and I need to tell everything to Hokage-sama, so I should kill two birds with one stone." Sair happily scurried up onto the long cushioned table and took a seat in Hinata's lap, Tsunade laughed to herself and pulled out the chair from the desk to take a seat for herself.

"Is this going to be a long or short story?" Asked Tsunade as she kicked the door shut with her foot.

"A little on the long side I'm afraid. I may have difficulties telling some parts..." She trailed off into silence, thinking about the events that she didn't want to recount. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before continuing, "Please be patient with me Hokage-sama." Tsunade simply nodded to her, having already been briefed by Sasuke, she was already aware of the worse factors that would be in Hinata's report. Hinata looked down at Sair, whose wide red eyes were looking up expectantly, "Sair, I know there will be some things you wont like about this story, but please don't interrupt me until the end, okay?"

A simple, "Okay." was all she answered.

Hinata couldn't put it off anymore, so she began to explain everything.


	5. How have I changed?

Sobbing permeated the room as Hinata gently stroked the hair of the little girl curled against her chest. She had told the two of them the entire story, from start to finish, leaving only certain... more personal things untold. The results had been as she had expected, Tsunade had left with only telling her to meet her at her office in the early afternoon and to bring the girl with her, and Sair had cried when she was told about her mother.

After she had finished recounting her mission and Tsunade had left, she opted to stay in the exam room for a while to tend to the distressed Sair. Twenty minutes had passed in the relative silence, and Hinata was fairly confident it could continue that way for hours, unfortunately, she really wanted to go home. Deciding to be somewhat selfish, she stood up, keeping Sair safely tucked against her chest, and left the hospital room intent on nothing more than returning to the compound and going to bed.

She received several curious looks as she navigated the streets with a crying child in arm, but her kind reputation doused any possible mutterings of mistreatment. People mumbled various foolish stories about what Hinata may be doing, but she simply ignored them and continued her trek home.

Once the busy streets of Konoha were behind her and she finally stood before the wooden gates of the Hyuga compound, she continued on, only to be greeted with an unpleasant surprise. The guards at the gate to the Hyuga compound were unusually silent as they simply nodded to Hinata and gestured for her to pass, and unfortunately, this usually meant that she was expected somewhere.

She walked past the gate into the main compound and headed towards the main house complex at a quick pace. She knew she had to see her father, but she really didn't want to deal with any kind of clan politics today, even though it was just getting around dusk, she was tired and just wanted to sleep.

Silently she tip-toed into the main house, holding her shoes with her free hand and soundlessly glided through the many hallways towards her room. Thankfully, Sair had fallen asleep so her presence would not be given away by the sounds of her crying.

She encountered no one as she hastily moved from hallway to hallway, adamant on avoiding contact with anyone until she was within the safety of her own room. Five more hallways. four more hallways, three more hallways, need to wait for the maids to pass, two more hallways.

"Daughter, why did you not come to the library where you were expected."

"Shit." She swore in her head, two hallways down from her room and of course she passes her father while stepping through an intersection. She turned to her left to face her father who was standing in the shadows a few meters back, "I wasn't informed that I was expected anywhere?" At least it was a half truth, unfortunately it was something of an unspoken rule that she needed to report to her father after any of her missions.

Hiashi arched an eyebrow at his daughter who was protectively holding an arm over an odd shaped, over-large bulge beneath her jacket, "Don't play more a fool than already you are. You are always to report to me after your missions."

The sounds of grinding teeth could be heard quite loud from the young Hyuga as she locked eyes with her father. The painful pressure on her jaw mingling with the irritation she was feeling made her wish once again that she hadn't run into her father today.

"I'm sorry father, I guess I wasn't aware of being a fool." She spoke somewhat more spitefully than intended, but decided that continuing with her tone would be the best course of action, "As I recall, I always report to you once I am ready, and if I am tired or injured I am given until afternoon the following day. That being said, I am tired... I will speak to you at noon tomorrow father, good night." She turned her back on her father and walked off towards her room.

Hiashi stared at the point where his daughter had been moments ago, a stunned silence violating his normally stoic demeanor. Thoughts on how to deal with this interesting development permeated his mind for several minutes until, with a firm nod to himself, he turned around and walked off in the direction of the dojo.

After arriving at the building, the sounds of a single person practicing katas from behind the closed doors could be heard. With one last mental confirmation of his request, he slid open the door and stepped in, "Neji, I need to ask you something."

* * *

After stepping into her room and closing the door behind her, Hinata was caught between several difficult decisions, all of which sounded wonderful: She could go straight to sleep, she could take a shower, or she could flip out that she told off her father. Sleep was winning but the other two options still hadn't been ruled out.

Choosing to leave the decision undecided for the moment, she walked up to the side of her bed and withdrew the sleeping form of Sair from beneath her coat, laying her down beneath the covers. Immediately and without waking up, she rolled around, bundling the covers around herself in a cocoon of blankets.

Shaking her head at the girl's cute antics, Hinata turned away from the bed and opened up the doors of her armoire. With an exhausted sigh, she removed her heavy black coat and hung it beside the white coat she always wore, feeling a distinct loss of safety after having removed her protective layer. Feeling thoroughly disgusting, she stripped off all of her excess ninja gear and disheveled clothing, tossing all but her weapon pouches into the clothes hamper she kept beside the washroom. Now feeling slightly less grungy, she rummaged through her drawers and pulled out some loose white pants and a white cotton tank top of which she donned quickly. Before returning to her bed, she examined herself in the large mirror that hung off the armoire's inside door and muttered several things under her breath in response to what she saw.

She had very little self confidence in her appearance on the best of days, now she was combining her normal thoughts with the appearance of substantial amounts of dried blood and grime, as well as discolored bruises that could be seen poking out from different areas beneath her shirt. Her hand pressed against the glass as she stared pitifully at the sorry state of her appearance in the mirror's reflection.

A minute passed with her looking on and the more she stared at the reflection, the more she noted it looked odd. Her first though was that maybe she had fallen asleep, but that wouldn't make sense since she knew she had been standing.

Inch by inch, her face crept closer to the mirror in an attempt to figure out what it was that was drawing her attention. With her nose practically pressed up against the glass, she finally noticed what it was, there was a large smudge of dirt beneath her hand that when seen in the reflection made her index finger look distinctly fat and swollen. She laughed at her own paranoia, pulling her hand away and leaving a dribbling trail of blood down the mirror.

A moment passed in confusion as she glanced between her own unmarred hand and the trail of blood cascading down from the hand still pressed against the other side of the mirror. Dawning fear snapped her eyes wide as she looked back only to see her own distorted reflection set in a malicious grin, eyes having turned a milky black and hand still pressed forward, bleeding through the glass.

Unprepared and panicking, she screamed and struck out at the mirror, putting her fist through the glass and cracking the hard wood behind it. The shattered glass cascaded over her fist and forearm to the ground, leaving great tears across Hinata's unmarred flesh. Tears leaked from the corners of her eyes as she breathed heavily, realizing a little to late that whatever it was had not been real. Real blood poured from the many cuts across her arm and hand as well as from the shards of glass embedded in her knuckles. Blood splattered along the hard wood floor, mingling with the brutal shards of the mirror, forming a rather savage looking collage.

"Hinata?" Sair's fearful voice came from beneath the covers.

She tried to think of something comforting to say, but came up blank, "I saw something I didn't want to see." She sighed, not wanting to scare Sair, she turned back to the broken mirror, "Go back to sleep okay? I'll be there in a minute, I just need to clean this up." She stepped around the shards and moved off into the bathroom without looking back at the cowering little girl.

Cold water poured over her many cuts as Hinata carefully picked the larger shards of glass out of her skin and dropped them into the garbage can beside her. She grumbled to herself as one by one the painful shards were removed, "Great, I'm not even asleep yet and I'm already having nightmares." She winced as she pulled out a large fragment that had wedged into her knuckle, "What am I going to see next, ghostly apparitions outside my windows?" Her mutterings and grumbling continued but even she stopped paying attention to what she was saying as she tended to her hand.

Even though Hinata spoke quietly as she conversed with herself over the sound of running water, her voice trailed into the main room where Sair listened with fearful, but rapt attention.

A few minutes later, Hinata returned from the washroom with a substantial amount of bandages wrapped around her right hand and a towel in her left. She walked over to the pile of glass and using the towel she had in hand, brushed all the mirror fragments beneath the armoire where they could be taken care of tomorrow. Content with the quick cleanup job, she dropped the towel on the ground and crawled into bed, happy to get away from everything for at least the next few hours.

Unfortunately, she didn't receive much time to enjoy herself after closing her eyes, since almost immediately, she felt someone poking her shoulder incessantly. She cracked open an eye to see Sair's arm sticking out from a mass of blankets, swirled around the girl from head to toe.

Unable to be angry at the strangely adorable display, she laughed to herself, "Trying to become a butterfly are we?"

"No... ummm, Hinata?" her voice sounded worried, as though she wanted to ask something but was afraid of the answer.

She opened her eyes completely and sat up, "What's wrong?" Hinata was incredibly tired, but she asked in as concerned a voice as she could muster.

"Can...can Sair still..." Her voice trailed off as she spoke.

"I can't hear you with all your padding," Hinata unwound one of the blankets from Sair's head so that some of her black hair poked out and one eye could be seen, "Try that again."

Sair stalled for a second, still uncertain about her question, but gave up and asked again, "Can Sair still call you mommy?"

The question surprised Hinata, she had dreamed of one day having children of her own, and inevitably being called such things, but she wasn't certain that she deserved to be called that by Sair. They had only met a few hours ago and even though Hinata had agreed to be her caretaker, wasn't this a little to fast.

She appraised the young girl whose eyes had a worried but hopeful intensity to them, her body trembled in anticipation of Hinata's response. The situation was still a little too odd for Hinata, so she picked her words carefully and hoped for the best, "Call me whatever you want."

"Okay... ummm, one more thing mommy." Her voice came out happy but still sounded somewhat distressed.

"And that would be?" She responded in an amused tone, still uncertain herself if she'd enjoy being called mommy or not.

"Can you unstuck Sair?" She wiggled around ineffectively as if to drive her point home.

The tension evaporated as Hinata unwrapped Sair, playfully poking the little girl once she was able to move on her own. With a newly released Sair, Hinata gathered the multiple blankets that she had been wearing and stretched them out over the two of them.

As soon as the blankets were down, Hinata felt two small arms wrap around her waist and a head nuzzle into her stomach. While far from comfortable, Hinata just didn't care anymore, so she laid a protective hand over the girls head, and drifted off to sleep.

* * *

The beams of the breaking dawn stirred Hinata from her dreams, forcing her to rise and face another day that she really didn't want to. She carefully extracted herself from Sair's grip and made her way around the bed to her bathroom.

"A shower would be nice." She thought to herself as she turned on the water, hoping to wash away the tiredness and grime accumulated over the last few days. She adjusted the temperature for a bit until it was to her liking, then stripped down, leaving her clothing in a pile and stepped into the hot shower.

Time evaporated as the hot spray from the shower head soaked into her skin, covering every inch of her body in its scalding embrace and dripping rivulets down all the contours of her body while threatening to rob her of thought. Her eyes closed as the water flowed over her like a second skin, beckoning her to never leave its embrace. Slowly she guided her hands up her body, from the length of her legs, to the curves of her hips, to the swell of her breast. The water drowned all her sorrows and at least for the time being, made her relax.

Over the sound of crashing water, she heard movement in the main room, "I'm in here Sair." She spoke in a normal voice, but could tell she had been heard when the movements shifted and headed towards the bathroom.

Sair stepped into the bathroom with a blanket draped around her shoulders, her yukata having become tangled and partially untied over the night, "Mommy?" Her eyes remained half closed as it was obvious that she was not completely awake yet.

Hinata smirked at the small girl as she stepped out from the warm confines of the heated water and into the slightly chilled air. Feeling the cold air over her wet skin, she loosed an involuntary shiver as she bent down to face the set of crimson eyes. "Now why don't we get you cleaned up as well Sair." She said as she removed the blanket and disrobed the girl.

Either Sair didn't understand what was happening or she simply didn't care until it was to late. She hadn't reacted or objected when being stripped, but as soon as she was put in the direct line of water, she was like a cat trying to escape the rain. Hinata found a certain degree of enjoyment in washing the squirming child. Despite putting up a good fight, in the end Hinata managed to get an arm around Sair's stomach and forcefully scrubbed her down with her free hand.

Sair pouted as she sat on the bed, swathed in towels after her shower. Hinata payed no mind to the girl and went about drying herself off and putting on some clean clothes. Once she was comfortably dressed in her form fitting black mesh shirt and pants, she opened her armoire and reached for the white jacket she always wore. The back of her hand grazed past the black fabric of the other jacket resting beside the one she had reached for, causing her to pause. After hesitating a moment, she reached over and grabbed Naruto's jacket and pulled it around her shoulders. She hugged the jacket to herself, feeling both comfort and safety envelope her as she pulled her arms through the sleeves.

"The nice man will want his jacket back when he gets back." Sair spoke innocently, not realizing that her words felt like knives to the older kunoichi.

She took a deep breath to calm herself before speaking, "No he won't, it was a gift." She turned around and ruffled Sair's damp hair, "But on the subject of clothing, we're going to need to get you some. My sister should have some older clothes that are around your size."

Sair's eyes widened in surprise, "Mommy didn't tell Sair she had a sister."

"I really don't think I had a lot of time to tell you anything about my life. In fact, other than some of my friends and my name, I don't think I got a chance to tell you anything." Her lips tweaked into a smirk as the look of surprise intensified on Sair's face. "We'll have more time for that over the next few weeks, for now, more important things... like clothes." She emphasized her point by poking Sair playfully in the stomach.

A light knock came at the door, "Hinata-sama, are you awake yet?" She could make out Neji's voice coming from the other side.

Hinata ruffled Sair's hair some more and leaned down to eye level with her, "Can you wait here for a few minutes, I need to talk with him." She nodded in response, allowing Hinata to turn around and head towards the door.

She slid the door to the side revealing her cousins tall form, his long black hair could be seen trailing down around his knees clashing against the pristine white of his loose clothing. She held up her hand to silence him a moment, as she stepped out into the hallway beside him and slid the door shut behind her.

"Hiashi-sama is waiting for you Hinata-sama." Neji bowed to her respectfully as he delivered his message.

Hinata rolled her eyes, drawing a disapproving look from her older cousin, "I told him yesterday that I would see him at noon, therefore I will see him at noon. My father should know by now that when I make a schedule I keep to it." Her voice echoed down the hallway as she spoke with significantly more intensity than was needed, "Tell me Neji, what did he ask you to find out from me?" It was blatantly obvious to her, even though she could never read if Neji was lying, it just made sense that her father was not pleased with her attitude and would try to investigate the reason.

Thinking that he had failed in concealing his inquiry, Neji looked away, "I don't know what you're talking about."

She blinked several times, watching the strange and uncommon display from her cousin. It took a moment for her to realize that he thought he had screwed up, at which point she just shook her head in a bemused manner, "I angered my father yesterday Neji, it's obvious he would want to know why I acted as I did. So what did he ask you to find out?"

Accepting her explanation, Neji looked up to face her again, "He wanted to know what happened on your mission that would cause such a radical change in your demeanor."

Hinata looked deeply into his cold and calculating pale eyes, thinking how she should answer his query, "He'll hear everything in a few hours, he can wait that long. But Neji nii-san," Hinata had raised her hand towards him but stopped and hesitantly withdrew her arm.

Hinata's seemingly bi-polar reactions were deeply confusing the young Jounin as he tried to understand her variable reactions.

"Neji, could you attend the meeting as well?"

Her frightened words continued to confuse him, "What's wrong Hinata-sama?" He asked, his concern evident.

Snapping out of her momentary weakness, she shook her head to clear her mind before responding to him, "Nothing, nothing is wrong, I simply do not wish to tell the story twice. So please, inform my father I will be there at noon and that I requested for you to attend."

Neji gave her an appraising look, her countenance had returned to normal and she seemed little different that her standard self, "Very well Hinata-sama, I will notify your father immediately."

He turned to leave when her hand grasped his shoulder and turned him back around, inquisitively he looked back to her, "Neji nii-san, I have a small favor to ask."

He arched an eyebrow at her, "That being?"

"Can you please find Hanabi and send her here? I need her help with something."

Neji didn't question the sudden friendly relationship that Hinata seemed to portray between her and Hanabi, he simply nodded to her in confirmation, and wandered off down the hall.

* * *

Hanabi disliked being woken up early on her days off, but Neji had been quite adamant on dragging her out of bed and pushing her towards her sister's room. Stumbling through the hallways, half asleep, she stopped herself in front of a mirror on a side table to take in her morning appearance.

Her short, lithe frame was wrapped gracelessly in simple yukata that she had thrown on and her long, silken black hair was disheveled and messy. It irritated her to no end that her normal cold, elegant grace was lost in the grogginess of mornings.

Not wanting to watch herself anymore, she turned back the direction she was heading and trudged off towards Hinata's room.

Several wrong turns later, she found herself in front of her desired location. Without bothering to knock, she slid the door open, hollering, "Nee-chan, what the hell did you want? It's my day off today!"

Having expected her sister to have some courtesy when entering another persons room, Hinata stared up in surprise as she sat on the floor with her back against the bed. Sair whom had been redressed in her yukata, sat in Hinata's lap, gazing curiously at the person intruding into her mother's room, "Mommy, is she your sister?"

The simple question brought Hinata back to reality, "Yup, she may be a little ragged at the moment but that would be my sister Hanabi... I guess that would make her your aunt."

Sair's eyes flared in excitement at the implication of a new member of her family, "Really?" Sair ungracefully flopped out of Hinata's lap and scurried over to the youngest Hyuga, who since making her entrance, had been rendered unable to speak. She stood in front of Hanabi staring up with wide eyes, her head coming up to around Hanabi's collar bone, "Hi aunty Hana, Sair is Sair." Taking Hanabi's continued dumbfounded silence as acceptance, she stepped forward and hugged Hanabi around her waist.

Stretching loudly, Hinata stood and approached her sister, an entertained smirk on her face, "Hanabi, meet Sair."

A normal human brain can process thousands of different actions simultaneously, however at this moment, Hyuga Hanabi's current mental capacities rested at two. The first being breathing, the second being the stalled process of her attempting to understand what was going on in front of her.

A loud cracking sound by her ear ripped her from her stupor as she saw Hinata face to face with her, snapping her fingers. Finally noticing recognition in her sister's eyes, Hinata stood up straight, grinning amusedly at her sisters stunned expression. "Just to tell you, she's not going to let go of you until you greet her."

Though still confused, Hanabi understood the warning, so she uncertainly placed her hand gently on top of the girl's head in hopes that it would free her. The desired effect was had as Sair smiled and stepped back from Hanabi.

Turning back to her older sister, Hanabi tried to think of appropriate questions to ask, but in the end all that came out was, "You have a kid?"

Embarrassed by the bluntness of her question, Hinata turned beat red and sheepishly looked to the ground, "Sort of, but not in the way that your thinking."

Her curiosity peaked with the partial answer, "So then in what way do you have a daughter?" Hinata was definitely acting strange, so she decided to conduct a little test, "Don't tell me you and Naruto have been having fun without us finding out?"

Hinata's eye twitched, but she remained calm and didn't step up to her sister's bait. She leaned down close to Sair's ear and whispered lightly to her, "Sair, can you go get me the extra bandage I left on the floor in the bathroom?"

The little girl hopped on the spot to face Hinata, "Okay mommy." at which point she quickly walked off into the bathroom. Hanabi waited as Hinata watched the retreating form of the girl as she turned the corner into the washroom.

There was a loud ringing in Hanabi's ears and It took her a moment, but after shaking her head clear she found herself sprawled across the floor beside the wall, with no recollection of what had just transpired. A warm metallic tasting liquid swirled in her mouth and dribbled from the corner of her lips. She winced as she sat up, feeling the prominent sting in her right cheek radiate through the rest of her face. Hinata stood defiantly in the middle of the room, her arm stretched out across her chest, quivering from the bone jarring impact. Her eyes were intense as she glared down at her sister, "Insult me if you will, but watch what you say about Naruto."

Not having ever been exposed to the intensity of Hinata's wrath, Hanabi simply stared on, dumbfounded.

Feeling her point was made, Hinata stepped over to her sister and offered her hand. Hanabi's confusion ebbed away slowly, and after a few seconds, she reached up, accepting her sister's offer.

After having gotten Hanabi to her feet, Hinata pulled a folded handkerchief out of her pocket and handed it to her sister, "Here, use this, I suppose I hit you harder than I thought. It's just a bit of blood but wipe it off so Sair doesn't see."

Not wanting to comment on Hinata's altered demeanor, she took the handkerchief without a word. Hanabi dabbed at her lip, removing the offending liquid from sight and desperately peered around her sister to the washroom wanting to change the subject from before lest she suffer her sister's odd mood swings again, "Why is she taking so long?"

The comment had the desired effect as Hinata forced a guilty smile, "Because I sent her for something that wasn't there."

"Ah..." Hanabi went silent, wondering how she should go about asking the obvious question that was bothering her. "Sister?"

"Hmm?" Hinata responded with a sound of curiosity.

Deciding to take the blunt approach, Hanabi went straight to the point, "What happened to you?"

Her eyes turned downwards and Hanabi could see something flicker across them, but after a moment it was gone, "A lot, can we leave it at that?"

Not used to seeing her sister in this state, she decided it was best to drop the subject for the moment. Whatever it was that happened, it had given her sister a backbone and despite having been slapped, it made her somewhat proud that her sister was able to stand up for herself. She smiled lightly, her loose hair falling across her face, "So sister, what did you want from me anyway?"

Realizing things had gone completely off from the original intention she had of calling her sister, she shook her head to clear her thoughts and turned back to the girl before her, "I need to borrow some of your old clothes for Sair."

Hanabi quirked her head quizzically, "My clothes, why mine?"

She smirked tauntingly before responding, "Because you're short sister."

Hanabi did not like it when people brought her height into measure, she narrowed her eyes menacingly at Hinata, "What does that have to do with anything!"

"Because I'm five foot six, and you're four foot six, and she's even shorter than you! If I gave her my old clothes, she'd be wearing a dress three sizes too large from an old shirt."

Hanabi glared up, wanting to bite back with her own rebuttal, but the unfortunate part is that it was true. Height combined with her sisters prominent bust would pretty much guarantee that her clothes would never fit the little girl. "Fine." She said in a huff, unable to deny the practicality of the matter. "Tell me one thing though, why am I an aunt now?" Her own irritation was lost in her curiosity as she asked her older sister.

Hinata smiled contentedly, happy that at least something was working out, "Naruto asked me to take care of her... because he couldn't." her voice cracked as she mentioned his name, but she managed to stave off the tears that were threatening the edges of her eyes.

Catching the idea that questioning this further would be a bad idea, Hanabi changed the focus of her attention in the direction of the bathroom, "Hey Sair, come here, we're going to go see if I can find you something to wear." She called out to the door.

A small face poked around the corner, "But Sair hasn't found the bandages for mommy."

The edge of Hinata's lip curled into an amused smirk as she turned to face the girl, "It's okay, I found them out here. Anyway, you need some clothes since that yukata wont last forever."

"Okay mommy." Sair walked back over to Hanabi and looked up with the same curiosity she had displayed previously.

Turning to Hanabi, Hinata had a pleading look on her face, "After you find stuff for her to wear, can you watch her until lunch? I need to speak with father and I think it would be appropriate to explain the situation before she makes a mistake and accidentally calls him G-R-A-N-D-P-A." Hanabi laughed in understanding as Hinata spelt out her last word so that the young girl would not get any ideas.

"Sure thing." Hanabi looked down into Sair's deep crimson eyes, surprising her since it was the first time she had noticed them. However living in a house filled with white eyed individuals who could see through walls tended to make very few things having to do with eyes surprise you anymore. "Hey Sair, Hin... err... mommy needs to do some things this morning, so you're going to be staying with me for a while, okay?"

Sair turned around to Hinata, seemingly uncertain. Hinata simply nodded to the little girl and the reaction was immediate, her face brightened and she turned back to Hanabi, "Sair want, Sair want!"

Exasperated, Hanabi looked back to her sister, "You owe me for this." The statement left no room for argument, so Hinata simply nodded in acceptance. Hopefully she'd be able to think of some way to repay her sister for her help.

Within five minutes, Hanabi had Sair outside the door, ready to go. While sliding the door closed behind her, Hanabi stopped it a moment and turned back, "Good luck sister." then slid the door closed the remainder of the way.

The remainder of the morning blurred together, leaving Hinata no more than a hazy memory of what she was doing until she was standing in front of the door to her fathers study. The heavy, carved oak doors loomed over her, daring her to enter the room beyond their protection.

With a heavy sigh, she soundlessly pushed the doors open and stepped into the oppressive atmosphere of her father's study. The flickering lamp light danced across the thousands of books shelved along the walls, granting an eerie tang to the air. Her father sat behind a low table in the center of the room, reading a small book with a cup of tea in hand. Neji sat on a separate side of the table, seemingly lost in thoughts since he did not look up when she entered the room.

She cleared her throat to announce her presence causing both men to look up at her as she stood in the doorway, "Father." She bowed her head to her father to which he nodded in response, then gestured for her to sit. She took a seat opposite her father and waited, uncertain as to how she should start things.

Hiashi's eyes scanned her face thoroughly, appraising and identifying her current emotions and tension. He found it surprising that she seemed completely unafraid of him, rather she only seemed confused and worried. "This will be an interesting afternoon I think." he thought to himself as he closed the book and placed it lightly upon the table. "Daughter," Hinata stiffened, looking to her father uncertainly. "You are inside, remove that foolish jacket and explain the events of your mission."

Having almost forgotten that she was wearing Naruto's coat, she stood up then slipped it off her shoulders, and folded it lightly, sitting back down with it in her lap, "My apologies father, it is a keepsake."

Hiashi nodded, apparently starting to understand some of the situation, "That is acceptable daughter, now, your report."

Hinata took a deep breath, readying herself to relive her mission one more time from the beginning. And so she began her story for the second time.


	6. Such beautiful disasters

The room was silent. Hiashi opposite her had not made so much as a sound throughout her report, while Neji had excused himself some five minutes prior when he had "accidentally" crushed his cup at her explanation of the events regarding Ten Ten. The silence was oppressive, even though it was not hostile, she felt that if it continued much longer it would smother her.

Failure was not something Hiashi accepted among his family, and judging from the story, not only had they failed miserably in their mission, but had caused the deaths of two able bodied ninja. While Hiashi did not think highly of either of the two, he knew just how capable they were and the impact that their loss would have on Konoha.

"Is there anything else daughter?" Hiashi's steely gaze was fixed on her, mentally keeping track of all of her reactions.

She swallowed back the lump that was forming in her throat, not wanting to but having to explain to her father about her new charge, "Yes father, there is one other thing," she took a deep breath, clearing her mind of the tension from the meeting. She subtly glided her hand across the coat in her lap, squeezing the sleeve in her grip for strength, "From today, I will be taking on a ward from outside the Hyuga."

Hiashi held his urge to laugh at her for presuming that she had permission, instead he chose to test her resolve, "We do not take on wards from outside of the Hyuga, these are the laws. I'd presume you would know this since I have not as of yet given your birthright to your sister."

Her eyes did not change, but her voice lowered to a dangerous tone, "I am aware of the laws father, but in this matter you have no choice. I was not asking your permission to take on a ward, I was notifying you that I was taking on a ward."

The silence returned, but the tables had turned. Hiashi shifted imperceptibly, disturbed by his daughters willfulness and sudden power to speak out against him. She had displayed such a demeanor the night before, but now it was far more prominent and potentially dangerous for himself. She did not speak but he could sense her daring him to contest her claim, and truthfully, he was uncertain as to what would happen if he did.

He pondered how the issue could be safely defused and after a moments deep thought, he came to an acceptable compromise that would save him face and difficulties. "Very well daughter, I am willing to come to a compromise, however there are two conditions, first.."

"There will be no compromises," Her voice cut across his, stopping him, "She is staying her and you will accept it father."

Hiashi could not believe the audacity of his daughter, to dare inform the leader of the Hyuga that he had no choice in something regarding HIS clan, "Know your place daughter!" Hiashi fumed.

"No father, I don't think you understand. I want to do this the delicate way, but you are apparently to stubborn. With one phrase to Hokage-sama, you would be forced to deal with this and believe me, I know she would do it." She stopped herself, realizing that she was ranting and probably causing more harm than good. Hiashi watched her intently as she slowed her breathing and suppressed her irritation, when she regained control of herself, she continued, "My apologies for that father, I lost myself somewhat... Sair will not be purview to the Hyuga secrets, nor will I raise her as one unless she chooses the path herself. The only thing that must be known father, is that as of this moment, Sair is my daughter and you will treat her as such."

A master of the poker face, Hiashi managed to keep a straight face during his daughter's declaration, however he couldn't seem to bring himself to respond. She had stated her claim with conviction and did not appear to have any intention on altering it or backing down.

She watched her father intently, striving to keep her own composure and calm while waiting on baited breath for his inevitable reaction. After four minutes of silence against his empty expression, Hinata took the silence as begrudged acceptance and stood up, pulling the coat from her lap to around her shoulders.

"Thank you father, I'm glad that you see reason." She turned to the door, reaching out for the solid brass handle as Hiashi snapped himself from his stupor.

"Daughter, wait a moment." She stopped her hand, but did not turn around to face him, "What is the reason for you taking this child?"

Hinata didn't need to think on her reasons, but she let the memory of his last request sink into her mind... she wanted to think of him, even though she knew that it would only bring pain. Her voice was sad as she answered her fathers question with only a few short words, "Because he asked me to."

Hiashi watched as his eldest daughter threw open the door and disappeared into the hallways, allowing the heavy door to slowly creak back into place until it was left just slightly ajar. He tapped his lip thoughtfully as he stood and moved to close the door to his study, "This could prove interesting," He thought casually to himself, "I believe I will be delaying that paperwork to make Hanabi the official heir for a little bit longer to see how all this develops." Ink dripped onto a fresh scroll as Hiashi returned to his seat, making notes on the recent developments within the compound and of his heiress.

* * *

Her heart beat erratically, thumping against her chest and her breath was ragged as she tried to regain control over her body. Hinata had moved herself into a side hall out of sight of her father's study where she now leaned against the wall, trying to regain her composure. She checked the time on a nearby clock, and seeing that it was almost one, she decided to head in the direction of the kitchens with hopes that she'd find her sister and newly appointed daughter. As she moved in her intended direction, her mind drifted to thoughts concerning her current situation. One day she had hoped to have children of her own, but this was unexpected to such a degree that even though she was willing, she was still having some difficulties dealing with it.

The hallways blurred together as she sped by, wanting to be as far away from her father's study as possible. When she finally entered the kitchen, she loosed a satisfied breath as she saw Hanabi sitting at a one of the tables, fruitlessly trying to teach Sair the proper way to use chopsticks. Hinata walked over to the table and sat opposite them, drawing Hanabi's attention away from her seventh attempt at teaching Sair.

"So how did..." The rest of what Hanabi said was drowned out as Sair's excited voice chimed in after noticing Hinata's presence.

"Mommy, look! Aunty Hana taught Sair how to hold sticks." Sair held them out proudly to Hinata who simple shook her head, a light grin across her lips as she reached across the table and lightly mussed the little girl's hair.

"That's great Sair, however, you eat with the thin end, not the thick end. You have to turn them around." The girl looked down to her hands curiously, not fully grasping that the way she was holding her chopsticks was not the correct manner. Hinata pulled Sair's right hand onto the table and opened it, allowing the two eating utensils to roll out of her grip. Next she molded Sair's hand into the proper shape, then slid the two chopsticks into the appropriate locations in her grip, "There we go, that's how you hold them."

Sair pulled her hand back and sat quietly, seeming to analyze the awkward manner in which she was apparently supposed to hold the two sticks.

Shaking her head in amusement, Hanabi turned back to her sister, "So, how did it go sister?" she looked her over her sister curiously, wondering what ill reactions there would be to the meeting that had just passed.

"Well he didn't disown me yet, though I wouldn't be surprised if that casual threat of his for making you the official heir becomes more of reality soon enough." Hanabi arched a curious eyebrow at her older sister.

"What did you say to our father, sister?" Hanabi's voice became cold and harbored a subtle, menacing tone. While she hoped things would turn out well for her sister, she had no interest in being pulled into her arguments.

Hinata embarrassedly ran a hand through her hair in hopes of distracting her sister while she thought of a proper way to describe what had happened, "Well...it's not like I ordered him to accept the fact that Sair would be living here... more like I told him that he had no choice in the matter, and that at a word the Hokage would support my decision."

This was the second time in less than twelve hours that Hanabi's brain seemed to have struck an impasse, as well, for the first time ever, her sister had managed to run her down with a figurative parade of illogical actions.

Seeing that her sister's mind had seemed to freeze, and not really wanting to be there when it unfroze, Hinata stood up and walked around the table to Sair, "Well, thanks for watching Sair while I was busy, if you need help with anything just ask me." Hinata scooped Sair up in one arm and tossed her potato sack style, over her shoulder, "I'll see you later sister, Sair and I need to go and see Hokage-sama, bye." With that Hinata quickly turned around and bolted out of the kitchen, a slightly confused Sair over her shoulder.

Hinata managed to make it down two full hallways before the echoing sound of her sister's voice could be heard screaming, "DAMNIT, GET BACK HERE SISTER!"

Thinking she had gone far enough to escape her sisters wrath for the moment, Hinata placed Sair on the ground and continued walking towards the front of the house. "Come on Sair, we have to go see Hokage-sama again."

Switching the chopsticks to her left hand, Sair ran up to Hinata and grabbed her hand, "Okay mommy." paying little attention, she casually spun the chopsticks between her fingers with surprising agility.

Impressed, Hinata watched the little girl play with the smooth wood sticks while continuing towards the exit. It was then that she noticed for the first time that Sair was no longer wearing the light yukata, rather she was now wearing her sisters old training gear, black long-shorts, a loose black vest with netting over the neck, shoulders and biceps, and thick wrapped sandals. It looked out of place on her, but since it fit, she wasn't going to complain.

After leaving the house and compound, they walked at a slow pace, not showing any particular interest in rushing off to their appointment. After a few minutes of walking, an odd craving struck Hinata so the two took a small detour and acquired themselves some takoyaki from a street vendor that she knew of.

Contentedly popping the large doughy balls into her mouth as they walked, Hinata was glad that she had found someone to distract her, if it hadn't been for Sair, she was fairly certain that she would be a depressed wreck at the moment. Sair attempted to mimic her, trying to eat the over large takoyaki in single bites, however after having two bounce off of her teeth and roll away on the ground, she abandoned such ambitions and just stuffed her face with the tasty treat.

They stopped and sat at a bench just outside the Hokage tower, Hinata wasn't in a rush to go see Tsunade and she hadn't been given a specific time to show up, so she figured another ten minutes wouldn't hurt. Sair did not sit when Hinata took her seat, rather she stared intensely at the side of Hinata's neck in a manner that distrubed her greatly.

Two minutes ticked by before Hinata finally became creeped out enough to ask, "Sair, what are you staring at?" Hinata's voice held a hint of demand, snapping Sair's attention away from her neck and up to her eyes.

"He's sorry mommy, he doesn't want to hurt you." Sair's voice was a misty tone, sounding almost as though she was ready to cry.

Hinata looked on in confusion, "Huh? He?"

Sair ignored Hinata's question and climbed up onto her lap, she placed her hand on the left side of Hinata's neck and gently stroked the smooth skin in the indentation between her neck and her collar bone, "It hurts a lot mommy, but all he needs is a hug..." Her voice trailed off as she rambled. The little girl looked up into Hinata's eyes, she could see tears starting to form in the corners of her crimson eyes, "Can Sair have a hug mommy?"

Taken by surprise by her odd behavior, Hinata decided the best idea would be to just ignore it for the moment and give in to the child's request. "I think I can manage that Sair." Hinata hooked her left arm around the petit form and pulled her against her chest in a loose hug, Sair responded as expected since her arms snaked around Hinata's stomach and squeezed lightly.

They stayed like that for a few minutes, Sair keeping her face firmly pressed into Hinata's chest as Hinata gracefully stroked the girls long hair, humming a sympathetic tone to hopefully calm the girl back to her normal behavior.

"Mommy," Sair's muffled voice chimed up to her, she rolled her head upwards so that her eyes were looking up at Hinata's face, "I'm hungry."

Hinata arched a disbelieving eyebrow at her, for such a tiny girl, she sure could pack away food, even though she hadn't finished her takoyaki she must have eaten something else before she had been picked up in the kitchen. She thought for a moment until something crossed her mind, it wouldn't be the nicest thing she'd ever do, but it would be funny at least. Also she felt it would be sufficient payback for when he had let Kiba loose in the Hyuga kitchens, "Okay Sair, after we finish with Hokage-sama, we're going to be heading to Shino's. We can grab something to eat there."

Sair continued to look up to Hinata, confusion evident in her eyes, "Who is Shido?"

Amused by the mispronunciation, she corrected her, "It's Shino, not Shido. He's the man who came to the hospital with the long jacket, the sunglasses, and the hordes of bugs."

Sair narrowed her eyes in discontent, "But he looks scary, Sair doesn't want to go to him."

Hinata sighed as she looked down into the girls overly honest crimson eyes, "Well, you'll get used to him. He's about as close to a brother as I have, so you'll likely be seeing him a fair amount." Sair maintained her unhappy look, but didn't say anything further against the man. Grinning at her minor victory,she decided that maybe she should at least cushion the girls dislike of her friend, "Don't worry Sair, everyone thinks he looks scary, but he's actually much nicer than he looks." This had the desired effect as Sair scrunched her nose in thought, then gave Hinata a fast nod to accept what she said. Smiling, Hinata released Sair and ushered her off her lap so that she could stand, then offering her hand to the small girl, "Come Sair, let's go and see Hokage-sama."

Sair took Hinata's hand and was lead through the front door, and up a winding staircase until they arrived at a large, sliding wood door. Beside the door was a desk where and attractive black haired woman sat, flipping through papers and books that were strewn about her desk.

After a moment, she noticed their presence and turned to the two of them with a smile, "Good afternoon Hinata, how are you feeling today?" A slight look of concern crossed the woman's face.

"I'm alive and I haven't gone crazy yet, beyond that there's just the horrible nightmares and constant shaking." Hinata waved her hand casually, failing to notice that the woman in front of her had just taken everything she'd said for fact.

Sair giggled at Hinata's odd joke, she didn't understand what she had meant, but she could tell that Hinata was simply making a bad joke. Hinata smiled down at the little girl, glad to see that she could still laugh despite what she had been through, then looked back up to speak with Shizune. When she made eye contact, she realized that Shizune had taken everything she had said for fact, her face was drawn into a look of mingled shock and pity.

Quickly waving both hands in front of her face, looking as though she were trying to swat an irritating mosquito, she raised her voice in hopes to clear up the misunderstanding, "No, wait Shizune, that was supposed to be a joke. I'm fine, really. Still a little dazed from yesterday, but there's nothing to worry about."

Shizune exhaled, her heart racing, "Hinata, please don't do that again, I thought I was going to have a heart attack! You're not good when it comes to jokes, we know you're too honest so it's natural that we believe what you say."

Hinata felt a little insulted by her comment, but it wouldn't do her any good to get into a second verbal brawl today, so she just ignored it, "We're here to see Hokage-sama, is she in?"

Shizune continued to calm her breathing, but nodded lightly to Hinata, "You can go in, if she's asleep just whisper 'Paperwork' into her ear and she'll snap awake."

"That's an interesting trick." Hinata spoke in a bemused voice, "I'll keep that in mind, thanks."

Shizune simply waved her hand, shooing the Hyuga into the room. Hinata smiled at the assistant and knocked lightly on the large door, after several seconds, a voice could be heard calling through the door, "Come in."

Sliding the door open, Hinata and Sair walked in, slipping it closed again behind them. Hinata had only been in the Hokage's office a handful of times before and it always surprised her when she entered. The dozens of rows of ancient books lining the walls, the many memorabilia of the passed kages, and since Tsunade had take over as the Godaime, the mountain of undone paperwork and piles of empty sake bottles. Tsunade sat at her desk, a large map and several books were open before her. Her eyes were bloodshot and her hair disheveled as she looked up to face those who would interrupt her today.

Her eyes widened in surprise when she saw who was standing in front of her, quickly she folded the map and closed the books, sliding them all into the top drawer of her desk. Once everything was away, she turned back to the stunned onlookers, "Good, you came." Tsunade turned to face Sair, who promptly slid behind Hinata's leg to hide, "Sair, can you hop up onto the table?" She patted an area of her desk that was free of clutter, "I was supposed to give you a proper physical yesterday, but I was a little distracted."

Something was wrong, Tsunade was never this energetic, Hinata eyed her suspiciously, "Hokage-sama?"

Tsunade had never heard the Hyuga with such a strange tone so she looked up at her curiously, "Yes?"

Hinata looked into Tsunade's eyes, beyond the sorrow and sadness, she could see that something had finally snapped. Picking her words carefully, she spoke calmly and slowly, "Hokage-sama, please calm down. You are our bastion of support as much as we are yours."

Tsunade stared directly into Hinata's white eyes, her gaze was intense enough to tempt her to look away, but Hinata held to herself and kept their eyes locked. After a few seconds, her eyes softened and Tsunade laughed heartily, when finished she looked back up to Hinata and smiled. "No wonder you were always in love with him."

"Ummm, what?" Hinata was thoroughly confused.

"When you find your voice, you're just as stubborn as he was." Still having no idea what Tsunade was talking about, she just stared on at her. Tsunade laughed again, patting Hinata's back lightly, almost sending the girl sprawling to the ground, "Come, get her up on the table."

Having started to get used to accepting the recent oddities, Hinata turned and picked up the girl wrapped around her leg and placed her on the table where Tsunade had indicated. Tsunade formed a quick seal, then began to pass her hands along Sair's body, about two inches away from actual contact with her skin. After passing up and down several times, she kneeled so that she could be at eye level with the girl, "Sair, can you follow my finger with your eyes?" She brought up a single finger in front of the her eyes and began to move in around in various directions, watching Sair's eyes.

After ten seconds of testing her eyes, Tsunade stood up again and turned to Hinata, towering over her, "I know you've only had her for two days, but have you noticed anything odd about her?"

"Odd? Not really," She thought over the time she had spent with the girl and tried to bring forward memories of anything strange she had done, "Well, she has an unreasonably well developed sense of balance, but other than that, nothing other than discussing some weird things now and then."

"What type of discussions?"

Confused by her leaders curiosity, she continued to answer the questions, "Before we came up she was talking about someone being sorry for hurting me, but I'm fairly certain that anyone who hurt me on the mission doesn't feel sorry about it, so it was just a strange conversation." Sair sat, kicking her legs back and forth as they dangled off the edge of the desk, oblivious to the fact that the other two were talking about her.

Tsunade tapped her lip slowly, pondering the new information, "What about the balance you were talking about?"

"Hmm? Oh, well she was able to stand on her own on Gamabunta's back and she was able to casually spin chopsticks along the back of her hand while walking. They're not that spectacular, but they tend to be very difficult for a normal person, much less a six year old."

Tsunade continued to tap her lip, "Those are a bit strange, but at the moment they wont help me much." Turning away from Hinata, she looked to the girl sitting on her desk, "Sair, do you know you're last name?"

Sair looked up, curious as to why she was being addressed, "Last name? Sair is Sair, Sair doesn't have another name."

Hinata snickered at the girls innocent answer, though Tsunade seemed irritated by it, "Damn, her family name would likely have helped me figure it out a little easier."

"Hokage-sama, what are you trying figure out?" Hinata asked, pensive regarding what the answer could be.

"Her bloodline, don't tell me you didn't realize that she had one?" Hinata shook her head, "I'm surprised with you Hinata," Tsunade was not angry, however Hinata looked away bashfully, "Most advanced bloodlines make themselves evident through minor genetic mutation in the bodies most variable locations. This means that in general, 80% of advanced bloodlines are visible through discolorations in the eyes or skin pigmentation. The Byakkugan being a white eye, the Sharingan being a red eye, the Yurikajigan being one bright purple eye and the other being bright red. Do you see what I mean?"

"Yes Hokage-sama, I just didn't think of it, please excuse my ignorance." Hinata bowed deeply before Tsunade, who in turn looked down surprised at the young Hyuga.

"Hinata, are you alright?"

Hinata looked up to Tsunade, confused, "Yes, why do you ask?"

"Because you seem to be emotionally, all over the place. I heard you're joke with Shizune, so in five minutes you went from sarcastic, to professional, to bashful, to humble. I believe you're under much more stress than you're letting on."

"Please Hokage-sama, I'm fine, don't worry about me." Hinata felt like she was caught between a rock and a hard place, she didn't want to continue the conversation, but if she tried to leave then Tsunade would probably try to get her a psych evaluation.

Tsunade looked on appraisingly, "Fine, but you are suffering from some distress. I'm taking both you and Sasuke off of active missions for the next month so that you have time to recover. Also it will give you time to help Sair adjust to her new home."

Sair's attention perked when she heard her name mentioned again, "What is Sair doing?" She asked innocently.

Tsunade pet the girls head lightly, being certain to control her inhuman strength, "I was just saying that Hinata has some time off to recover and to help you get adjusted to your new home." Sair silently cheered as she bounced off the table back to the floor, Tsunade turned back to face Hinata, "Are you sure you're okay with keeping her? I'm sure we could find somewhere else if you need."

Hinata smiled at Tsunade's concern for her, "No, it was the last thing he asked me to do, so even if you ordered me not to, I still would."

"Good to hear, I prefer hearing about loyalty rather than just blind obedience." Realizing she was pulling away from their original purpose, Tsunade cleared her throat and continued, "So, all the major damage that she has should heal over time without problems, I forced some chakra into her during the scan that will neutralize any residual narcotics or poisons in her blood as well as accelerate the repair to her liver so there wont be any permanent damage. The only thing she can't have is any kind of alcohol for at least several months, not that I'm worried about you getting her drunk, but her liver is barely functional so it's better to just give the warning anyway."

Hinata rubbed her hand over her mouth, suppressing her urge to laugh, "So basically I shouldn't bring her to see you then Hokage-sama?" She casually kicked an empty bottle on the floor, causing it to roll towards Tsunade.

Tsunade narrowed her eyes menacingly at the young Hyuga, "Just do it, I'll send for you if I find anything out about her bloodline but don't expect much, I have a lot to do and it's far from the top of my list of things to deal with."

"Then I'll look forward to word from you Hokage-sama." Hinata once again bowed, though this time it was little more than a slight tilt of her upper body.

"Bring her back to see me again in three weeks. Also, if you start experiencing anything out of the ordinary, come back yourself for an examination, I trust your body will be fine, but trauma can do terrible things to our minds." Her eyes hazed over as she thought back on memories of Dan and her brother.

Seeing that Tsunade was now lost in her own thoughts, Hinata decided that it was an appropriate time to go. Taking Sair's hand, she walked towards the door and began to slide it open when a painful but important thought struck her. She turned around to face the hazy eyed Tsunade once again and spoke quietly, but determinedly, "Hokage-sama..." Tsunade snapped out of her revery and turned to face the sad pale eyes of one Hyuga Hinata, "When... when will the funerals be?"

A powerful fear overcame Hinata as she began to think that Tsunade would not respond, but after a few moments she did and it was the answer that surprised her more than anything else, "There will be none."

Anger overpowered her as Hinata raised her voice, "WHAT! WHY THE HELL NOT!" gritting her teeth, Hinata had to force herself to stop before she got herself into a significant amount of trouble. Oddly enough however, Tsunade did not seem angry at Hinata's outburst, rather she seemed slightly amused.

"I'm not arranging one until we are able to verify that they've been killed. I have no intention on giving up on them as long as I can." It was obvious that she was lying to herself so that she could hold onto some small strand of hope, but Hinata could not find a way to be angry for it, rather she felt a twinge of happiness that Naruto had been such a large part of the lives of other people as well.

"I can accept that Hokage-sama. I'll tell you what, if you find them and send a rescue party, I volunteer to lead the mission." She knew they were gone, but she decided that Tsunade would need the support of those she supported as well, it was the least she could think of to offer.

A triumphant grin spread across the elders face as she continued to watch the odd pair, "I'll hold you to that offer Hinata. Now go home, Sair looks like she's about ready to chew through your leg to find something to eat." Sure enough, Sair was longingly scanning around the the room for something to eat, a line of drool dripping down from the edge of her mouth.

Sighing out loud, she gently tugged the girl's arm to draw her attention, "Come on Sair, let's go see what Shino has in his kitchen."

* * *

Over the next several days, many things gradually changed. Hinata began to grow accustomed to Sair's clingyness and occasional strange behavior. She hadn't had any reactions as bad as the one outside the Hokage tower, but Hinata had seen several times where she appeared to have short conversations with herself in the hallways, what was stranger was that it didn't seem to matter to her if other people were around or not. On a separate note however, her introduction to the rest of the house had gone off well and most of the servants seemed to have grown very fond of the odd little girl. It had not been possible yet to introduce Sair to some of the other children on the grounds, but she figured that she'd get around to it eventually so there was no sense in rushing anything.

The gap between Hinata and Hanabi had slowly begun to decrease, while being far from best friends, their mutual weakness for Sair's childish antics caused frequent bonding interactions between the two women. Despite the fact that Hanabi was still on active duty, Hinata and her had forgone some of their normal training regimes and instead chose to practice their normal Jyukken katas together. Additionally, Hanabi had managed to round up a large amount of her old clothing, then with the help of her sister and her new 'niece', managed to drag an extra dresser into Hinata's room to store the girls new clothes.

Her father had surprised her greatly when he stopped speaking to her in any form of condescending manner, when she brought up the odd change with him, he plainly told her, "When one rock falls from a cliff, many will cascade along with it. Something in you changed and with that, other things will change. For the moment I will observe your progress and treat you as a proud daughter. Do not make me regret my choices." Perplexed by her father's new outlook on her, she decided that it would be best to simply accept the good turn of events. When Sair eventually met her father and realized who he was, Hinata breathed a sigh of relief that she did not try to call him grandpa, she just said things like "Excuse me" to get his attention when needed. Thankfully that wasn't often since understandably, Sair seemed intimidated by Hiashi's presence.

Neji had volunteered for an extended mission and had up and left the same night that Hinata had spoken to him and her father. He had not come to say goodbye to her or anyone else, choosing instead to just leave as soon as his mission was confirmed.

She had told Shino the entire story when she had gone to see him the afternoon that she had seen the Hokage. He had respectfully listened to her and told her that he would continue to support her regardless of what happened. Afterwards, the two decided that they would visit Kiba in the hospital each night, however they didn't need to wait an exorbitant amount of time since he woke up the next day and was released two days later. Shino had been kind enough to fill in Kiba of the parts of the mission that he had been unconscious for, he did not want her to have to relive those things again and Kiba silently agreed after the information had been passed to him.

While Kiba was released and in generally good shape after only 4 days, Sakura's condition was not improving at anywhere near the same rate. She had been in and out of consciousness throughout the week, but even when she was up, she was delirious and in pain. Sakura seemed to only be surviving on a combination of incredible willpower and excellent medical care, her shattered legs had been set, braced, and bound to the bed, as had her splintered shoulder, rendering her more or less immobile. Sasuke had spent practically the entire last week tending to Sakura to the best of his abilities, in fact on one occasion where Hinata had gone to visit her, a nurse had told her that he only left for around half an hour every day to shower and get himself a fresh change of clothes.

It was on the tenth day after her return, when a messenger came to her as she and Sair relaxed by a small koi pond in the north west corner of the Hyuga compound. Hinata calmly sat on a bench, taking in the early afternoon sun as Sair stomped around through small pond, trying to catch up to the speedy fish. She was completely soaked, but Hinata found it strangely entertaining with all the girls needless movements. She was about to stand up and demonstrate for Sair how to catch a fish with your bare hands, when she heard footsteps approaching from behind her. At first she didn't turn around, instead measuring the weight of the steps, the length of the stride, and the speed of the walk. The pattern didn't match anyone she knew, so she turned around when she measured the person as being around fifteen feet away from her.

The person was slightly shorter than her, perhaps around 5'4" and wore a full black body suit combined with a white cat mask, "Yes?" Uncertain as to why an ANBU would be there to see her, she decided to just remain polite and concise.

The man gave her a slight bow before speaking in a rough, grainy voice that she didn't recognize, "Hyuga Hinata, I am to immediately escort you to the Godaime."

Hinata arched a disapproving eyebrow at the man, "What is the reason?"

The man gave another slight bow, "I am sorry, the only instructions I was given by the Godaime was to quickly acquire Hyuga Hinata, and return her to the Hokage tower."

She tapped her lip thoughtfully for a moment before giving a slight nod to the man, "Very well, but I need to quickly go inside. It will only be a minute."

The ANBU shook his head, "No, that I cannot allow. I was told to bring you immediately."

A chill crept in on the man as Hinata leveled an icy look at him, "You have no option in this. I agreed to come, you WILL wait for me." Her powerful emphasis on her point forced the man back a step in surprise.

Hinata paused as a woman's laughing filled the air, confused, she stepped back away from the bench. The voice sounded extremely familiar but she just couldn't put her finger on it.

The ANBU spoke to her again, but this time in a very familiar, woman's voice, "Well Hinata, I wouldn't have believed Shino if I hadn't seen for myself." Seeing the slightly confused look still splayed across her face, the person shook their head amusedly and with a puff of smoke, dismissed their jutsu. Before Hinata now stood a very familiar form, standing around three inches taller than herself with deep red eyes and a white and grey dress wrapped around a slender form was her sensei.

"Kurenai-sensei!" Hinata squealed and ran forward to embrace her old master.

"Hey Hinata, I hear you've had an interesting few weeks," As she saw Hinata's face sink, she smiled and pat the girl on the shoulder, "Don't worry, I heard everything already from Shino. I asked him to tend to my plants while I was out of the city so I ran into him last night when I got in."

Hinata's facial expression mingled between continued depression and relief, "Well at least that saves me some time." Kurenai smiled at her students lazy attempt at a joke, diffusing some of the built up tension of the subject. Looking over to Sair, Hinata waved her hand gesturing for the girl to come to her to which the girl trotted over splashing water in every direction. Hooking one arm beneath the child's legs, Hinata hoisted Sair up so she was almost on eye level with the other woman, "Sair, this is my teacher Kurenai."

"Hello Kunerai, Sair is Sair." She smiled and waved her tiny hand at the woman she had not met before

"Cute, but it's ku-re-na-i." She pet her head lightly drawing a satisfied smile from the small girl. Turning back to Hinata, she looked at her with one edge of her lip curled into a smirk, "So this would be your so called daughter I take it?"

Hinata nibbled her lower lip, she hadn't expected Shino to tell her something like that, rather she had hoped to be able to explain that situation herself, "Errm, I guess you could say that." A guilty smile spread across her lips as she looked up at her master.

Shaking her head to dismiss the girl's embarrassment, "Don't worry about it Hinata, all that aside though, I'm glad you're doing alright. However, I wasn't joking about the Hokage wanting to see you." Hinata quirked her head curiously, prompting Kurenai to continue, "While I was giving her my report, another message came for her. After she read the message she asked me if I could come get you, for anything beyond that, your guess is as good as mine."

"Fair enough," It was odd for her to be called personally by the Hokage so she pondered what it was that she was being called for. While pondering the Hokage's intentions, an irritating realization came to her causing her to frown lightly, "Kurenai, could you do me a favor?"

"Sure, what do you need?" responded the red-eyed woman, curious as to the change in her facial expression.

"Could you watch Sair for a while? My sister is away on a mission until tomorrow evening." She offered up the confused looking girl in her arms towards her master.

Kurenai laughed loudly, shaking with mirth as Sair reached out and poked the older woman in the forehead, "Why is Kunerai laughing at mommy? That's mean!" The girl spoke loudly with an exaggerated pout.

Kurenai suppressed her laughter to a few light snickers, finding it impossible to resist the girls adorable statement, "Hehe, sure, I can watch her for a while. Whenever you're done, why don't you pick her up at my house, I'm sure Azuma would like a new playmate." She picked the girl out of Hinata's outstretched arm and set her against her shoulder. Sair seemed uncertain for the first few seconds, but after seeing Kurenai's red eyes up close she became enthralled and leaned her head against Kurenai's shoulder, gazing up at the eyes that were so similar to her own.

It was amusing to watch the sudden strange discomfort Kurenai was experiencing at being stared at like a steak, deciding to diffuse it somewhat, she stepped beside the girl and tapped the back of Sair's head to draw her attention. When Sair turned to face her with a questioning look in her eyes, Hinata spoke to her in a kind but firm voice, "Be nice to Kurenai Sair, and don't hurt Azuma, he's only two so you're a fair bit older than him."

Excitement formed in her eyes as Sair realized that she was going to be able to play with someone closer to her age. She hopped in excitement, kicking her feet back and forth, "Sair will be good, Sair promises!"

Smiling in approval of her answer, Hinata scratched Sair's ear affectionately, causing the girl to nuzzle against her hand. It had begun to amuse Hinata that some of Sair's reactions were so cat-like, sometimes she felt almost like she was taking care of a newborn kitten.

"We'll walk with you until we reach my street, okay?" Kurenai asked plainly.

"Sounds like a good idea to me."

The two women meandered towards the main gate, heading off in the direction of the Hokage tower once they had passed by the guards. They aimlessly discussed various topics, seeming to unconsciously circumvent anything about what had happened on Hinata's mission. Around fifteen minutes later they arrived at the street with Kurenai's home, then with a hug to each of them, Hinata left on her own towards the tower. A little while later she arrived at the winding steps, leading from the base of the tower up to the Hokage's personal office. With a light sigh, admitting to her own curiosity, she wandered up the stairs.

Short black hair came into view as Hinata stepped up the last few stairs to the room at the top where Shizune sat calmly behind her desk. Her dark eyes were filled with a mixture of worry and uncertainty as she looked up with recognition at the young woman who just came up the stairs.

Ignoring the odd stare from the older woman, she went on with her purpose, "Good afternoon Shizune, Hokage-sama called for me?"

Her eyes seemed to be holding back the urge to say something, but after a few seconds of silence, Shizune apparently decided against speaking her mind, "Yes, she's waiting for you inside."

Nodding respectfully to Shizune for her information, Hinata turned to the door to the Hokage's room and knocked lightly. Almost immediately Tsunade's booming voice could be heard speaking from the other side, "Come in."

Choosing not to ignore the words of the powerful woman waiting on the other side of the door, Hinata entered the Hokage's personal office for the second time in two weeks. Very little had changed from the previous week, the files were a different height and there were a few more sake bottles lying about, The woman sitting behind the desk however had an almost maniacal grin on her face.

Feeling somewhat pensive about her leaders current appearance, she opted to stand and wait for her to say something. She didn't need to wait long since right after Hinata stepped in front of the woman's desk, she spoke to her in a powerful and demanding voice, "I have an important mission for you Hinata, only you can be entrusted with this mission so I'm bringing you back onto active duty starting today."

The gears were turning but Hinata still had no idea what was going on, "Huh... I don't understand. Aren't I on forced leave for mental trauma? At least that's what I figured it was after the last meeting."

"Yes, yes, but that doesn't matter now," She waved her hand in the air as if to dismiss the subject, "Right now you just need to think about your new mission and selecting your team." Her eyes burned with determination as she watched the young Hyuga for a response.

Maintaining her previous, pensive mind-set, Hinata decided that perhaps a few questions were in order, "So... before I agree to anything Hokage-sama, what is this mission?"

She slid a frayed, rolled up scroll across her desk to Hinata, causing her grin to widen and a shiver to run down Hinata's spine. Picking the scroll up lightly, almost as though it was about to bite her, Hinata unfurled it and brought it up to read.

I hope this finds you before it's too late.

I bore witness to your raid last week and commend your people on being able to get out. In that raid, I lost my only reason for remaining with the group, so I have defected, however even though they are not hunting me, I would like to be able to make some amends with myself before my end comes. The facility that was attacked previously was mostly destroyed, however they have moved to their northern facility and are awaiting further support from some of their allies. I can guide you to their facilities as I would like nothing more than them to be disbanded or erased.

I know that there is no reason for you to trust me, but when I defected, I took some things that belong to your village and that I would like to return. If you decide to do this, I am waiting in a village three hours directly north of the old facility. In less than four weeks I will no longer be among the living, so if you would like to do this then the sooner the better. I will humbly await your men.

The bottom of the letter was signed with the name Shashu. An urge began to burn in her stomach, a lust that she had never before thought of... revenge. Hinata looked up to Tsunade, a mixture of outrage and disbelief, fighting for dominance of her thought process. Biting back all her negative emotions, she breathed deeply, allowing her breathing to slow and return to normal. She allowed her eyes to close, letting the scroll slip from her finger tips and fall to the desk as she began to summon up a practiced bulwark to control herself. Her jaw locked and eyes steeled as the opened, gazing coldly across the desk at Tsunade. She adopted the calm calculated eyes that her father had long ago mastered as an emotionless tone fell from her lips, "When do we leave?"

* * *

Yurikajigan - Lily conflagration eye

Shashu - Marksman


	7. It's time to prepare

The woman known as Hyuga Hinata could normally be best described as shy and reserved, though over the last several years she has been continuously fighting with her faults to strengthen herself... this has not been overly effective. However, in the last two weeks events have transpired that have fortified her will even more than her training throughout her life before. Friends and family had all come to recognize the change, but while some knew of the reasons behind it, none could completely understand how the changes in her had been so drastic. Tsunade who currently sat across the table from her understood the reason for her altered demeanor, but nevertheless stood impressed by her newfound determination.

"I'm glad you've agreed," Tsunade leaned across the intending to emphasize her next point, "But I'm telling you this now, there is not backing out of this. The mission is fairly obvious, wipe them out, all of them. If the letter is a trap then keep one alive to interrogate and kill the rest. I will not tolerate any second guessing or uncertainty." She paused to let this fact settle in to the mind of the stone faced Hyuga, "This mission will leave in three days, you will choose five additional shinobi to follow you on this mission and you will be in charge regardless of rank." Hinata raised an eyebrow in query, finding this judgement a little awkward considering she was only a Chunin and Tsunade had just implied that the team would likely consist of only people who were higher rank than herself. Tsunade's hand waved dismissively, setting aside any arguments that there might be until after everything was said, "I want to go, but it would be impossible for me to leave the village for any extended quantity of time. This is why you will be my proxy and lead the mission in my stead."

Blink.

Seconds tick by as the two women star at each other, one stone faced, the other with a lopsided grin.

Blink.

Hinata slowly raised her hand above her head as though she were to ask a question in a classroom and calmly spoke, "Hokage-sama, did you just say that I would be your proxy on this mission?"

Widening her grin, Tsunade speaks in a matching volume to Hinata, "Yes, I do believe that is what I just said."

"Ah!" Hinata's voice wavered slightly but maintained its calm sound, "That's good, I was afraid there was something wrong with my hearing. If you'll excuse me a moment." Swaying back and forth for a moment, Hinata's eyes rolled back into her head and she collapsed on the spot.

Leaning back into her seat, Tsunade gave a satisfied smile as she thought aloud, "Good, she hasn't changed completely at least. I guess I'll give her a minute before I wake her up." Tsunade slid the bottom drawer of her desk open revealing a mass of unopened bottles, after glancing over several of the smaller bottles, she withdrew a short slender bottle. Examining the label on the bottle, she gave a slight nod in confirmation of the object, "This should do well."

* * *

"The ceiling... why is the ceiling in front of me?" Thought the young Hyuga heiress as her eyelids fluttered open.

"Finally awake I see." Tsunade's amused voice floated over to Hinata.

Realizing that she was on her back and in an incredibly uncomfortable position, Hinata righted herself and stood back up to face the Hokage's seat. On the desk she saw a small bottle and two small glasses filled with a sweet smelling liquid, looking up at Tsunade, the older woman gestured to the seat that was pulled up in front of the drinks. Hinata assumed that she must have been out for at least a few minutes since Tsunade had moved most of the papers from her desk to the floor near the window so that there would be sufficient room for them on the desk without risk of scattering important papers.

Hinata gracefully stepped over and slipped into the seat without breaking the stone-like expression on her face that was currently holding up the majority of her dignity. Taking the small ceramic cup in front of her she raised it up a moment in thanks, then pulled it back and downed the whole glass.

Tsunade smiled at the girl's drinking methods, ignoring her own glass, she waited until Hinata had put her cup back down on the table before speaking, "Feeling better yet?"

Her expression remained constant, though Tsunade could tell it was strained, "Can we get on with this please?"

Shaking her head in amusement Tsunade reached for her own cup and quickly downed it, "Well we would probably have already been done if someone hadn't taken a break." Tsunade had to force herself not to laugh as Hinata's eye began to twitch, "Hinata, I'm glad you've agreed to perform this mission, but I only need you to be determined and get the job done without the second guessing you always used to do. Trust your judgement and you'll be fine."

Allowing herself to take a deep breath to calm her nerves, Hinata continued to watch Tsunade warily, "Very well Hokage-sama, I will not back down from this mission, and I will complete it as you asked." Her calm voice carried no hint of fear or worry, she was completely at ease with the mission now.

Smiling broadly, Tsunade leaned in and refilled their cups from the small bottle on the table, "Good to hear it! So do you have any idea of who you will be taking?"

Nodding in response to her inquiry, Hinata grabbed her cup and took a slow sip from its sweet contents, "Yes, I know who will be coming with me, however I will only be taking two people."

Tsunade arched a curious eyebrow at her, "With six things would go much faster, but as my proxy for this mission it is your choice. I assume you're referring to Kiba and Shino then."

She shuddered a bit at the pressure added to her mind when she was referred to as a proxy, but let it slip away in her calm, "No, I will not be taking either of them."

"Oh?" Tsunade's voice held a hint of surprise, "Then who?"

"Sasuke and Neji-niisan." Tsunade looked perplexed at the decision so Hinata decided it best to explain her reasons, "While I do work best with Shino and Kiba, they aren't well suited for a task like this. Kiba is too sporadic and Shino is too apathetic for this, additionally Shino has no connection to the mission beyond myself, and if Kiba's pride took another hit then he wouldn't be able to perform properly. Sasuke and Neji however are both driven and already want to accomplish the task even though it hasn't been assigned to them yet. For this I will need my team to be determined, and no one else at the moment could match them."

Tsunade rubbed her chin in thought as she nursed her own cup. After a few seconds she nodded in understanding, "Very well, Sasuke is no problem, your cousin however isn't due back for at least two weeks, so it would be best to choose someone else."

"No, it will be Neji-niisan. You said barely a minute ago that I was your proxy for this mission, meaning I can call him back from his mission with the same authority as you for this, correct?"

Hinata's calm voice gave power to her words that both excited and disturbed Tsunade to such a point that wanted to know what kind of permanent effects this would have on the young Heiress. After listening to her point, Tsunade decided to cave to the girls authoritative mannerisms, "Very well, but it will be you writing the message and there's no telling how long it will take for the message to reach him or for how long it will take for him to get back."

"If I use my families falcons to get him the message it should take at most three days to find him, as for him getting back here... I wouldn't worry about that, I'm sure he'll get here in time. That being said, I'd like to postpone the departure from three days to five days to give Neji ample time to return."

Tsunade thought about the delay for a moment, but reasoned that it shouldn't cause any major problems, "That works. The mission is now in your hands completely Hinata, all details and people to be informed will be dealt with by you. Is that good for you?" Hinata's eyes widened drastically, but she nodded in confirmation, "Good. Your cousin should be in the southern forest near the Suna border. For now, good luck Hinata, I'll give you a further debriefing before you leave."

Eyes still fairly wide, Hinata once again nodded in understanding before draining the remainder of her cup, "Thank you Hokage-sama, I should be going now to have the message sent as soon as possible." She stood from her seat and bowed deeply to the woman such that her bangs slid across the surface of the desk. After righting herself, she turned and opened the door, sliding it shut behind her.

The outer office seemed more oppressive than it had been when she had arrived. Shizune busily flipped through paperwork behind her desk, frequently flitting worried glances up at Hinata as she stood there mutely. With a sigh Hinata turned down the steps and walked, each step adding a weight to her stress level as her mind worked through her new responsibilities.

* * *

Its wings beat relentlessly at the endless blue sky, pulling it farther and farther away from the Hyuga compound in search of its target. White eyes watched on as it gradually disappeared into the horizon, bringing a light smile to their owners lips. The owner of said eyes, was one Hyuga Hinata, who having just completed the first step of her mission was watching her messenger until he was completely out of sight. After having written the letter to her cousin, she felt like a large amount of the mental stress that had gradually been building up had been lifted, allowing her to think a little clearer.

Once the bird was long out of sight, she headed out of the Hyuga compound towards the hospital in hopes of catching her last team member. The buildings and people passed as she walked, barely even noticing when someone would greet or speak to her, none of it was really that important at the moment.

She smiled to herself as she turned one last corner, stepping out into the courtyard of the large stone building she was searching for. Walking through the front door, she turned and approached the nurse at the front desk, "Same room?" she asked bluntly.

The nurse looked up to her and smiled at her, "Good afternoon Hinata, yes she's in the same room, next week we'll be moving her to D wing though."

"Thank you." Turning away from the desk, Hinata wandered off in the direction she knew Sakura's room to be.

A few minutes later she stood in front of a closed grey door with a medical file slot on its side that was stuffed full of dozens of charts and folders. Taking a deep breath to steady her nerves, Hinata lightly knocked on the door before turning the nob and opening it.

The over-bright hospital lights were dimmed inside the small room, giving a much less oppressive image as she stepped in. Sakura was lying comatose in a small bed, with half a dozen machines hooked up to her and beeping at random intervals, tubes and wires traced most of her body leaving her looking vaguely like a robot in some science fiction movie. A lot of color had returned to her face since the assault, but her skin was still pale and in general she looked to be just barely circumventing death's door.

Beside the bed, snoring lightly on a cheap, plastic fold-out chair, she saw the actual purpose of her visit. Hinata thought to step around the bed and wake him, but she figured he probably didn't get a lot of sleep so she decided to wait around until he woke up.

Looking away from the sleeping man, she turned back towards Sakura's unconscious form. Lightly taking her hand and sitting on the edge of the bed, Hinata spoke softly with a amused expression on her face, "Hey Sakura, you'll never believe what happened..."

* * *

"........kill..........informant.........mission........" Small words slipped in through the cracks of his unconscious mind, stirring memories and bringing him to partial awareness. Having only gotten a handful of hours of sleep in the last week, his brain tried to force him back into his dreamless stupor to get some much needed rest, but something about that voice, it was familiar. It wasn't Sakura otherwise he would force himself awake but he just couldn't put his finger on the name.

Eventually his curiosity brought him to full consciousness, allowing him to stomp out his urge to return to sleep and look up to match the voice to a name. Somewhat surprised to see the white eyed princess visiting Sakura, he stood up and walked over to her while rubbing the sleep from his uncovered eye.

"*Yawn* Hinata, what brings you here?" He eyed her curiously as he stepped around the bed to face her.

Hinata placed Sakura's hand back down and stood up, turning to face the Uchiha with a pleased grin crossing her lips. "What, can't a girl come visit a hurt friend?"

Sasuke took a step back, her voice dripped a playful sarcasm but his surprise was mostly from the fact it was her using the voice. "No, of course not. You just always visited with Shino so I was assuming you wouldn't normally come alone." He had been taken a bit off guard by her so his voice stuttered slightly, showing his uncertainty.

"Well you're right." He arched an eyebrow at her, "Today I'm here for you." She spoke in such a 'matter of fact' tone, that he was once again taken aback and took a moment to process what she had said.

"Umm, okay... what did you want?" Choosing to play along rather than cause problems he decided to hear out what she had to say.

"Five days."

"... What?" Confusion began to set in.

"We leave in five days, be ready."

"Leave? What? Leave for where and why am I leaving?" He was starting to wish he hadn't asked her why she was there.

"Simple, you, Neji and I are heading north to deal with a troupe of murderers."

Past his confusion, he looked away from Hinata and back to Sakura's prone form, "Sorry, I refuse. I'm needed more here at the moment. Besides, I'm off active duty for another while."

She stepped into his line of vision, blocking his view of Sakura's face, "I don't think that's quite what you want to say. Besides, you have no choice in the matter."

His eyes grew menacing as he glared down at her, though Hinata did not back down, rather she stared up defiantly at him, "Hinata, I have the utmost respect for you as a shinobi, but no one except the Hokage herself can tell me I don't have a choice in something. So.." He was about to continue his tirade when Hinata cut across his voice.

"Well that's great then, because she gave me the ability to choose anyone I wanted for this mission, period." She grinned up in triumph as his eyes welled with fury. "Relax Sasuke, you'll enjoy the mission I assure you... we all will."

Still furious, he arched his visible eyebrow at her, "Really, what makes you say that? Unless we're going to deal with the bastards that did this," He gestured with his arm in a wide arc, indicating Sakura, "Then I really don't give a shit and you can take your orders and stuff them."

Her grin didn't fade in the slightest as she turned away from him and opened the door back to the hallway. Looking over her shoulder at him, her words echoed slightly in the small room, "Then I guess you'll be enjoying the mission, just like I said." Without waiting for a response, she stepped out and closed the door behind her.


	8. The gathering

After returning home from the hospital, Hinata left strict orders at the gate of the Hyuga compound that Sasukewould be turned away without question. The only thing they could tell him was to be prepared to leave when she called on him, but needless to say, this didn't stop him from trying to force his way to see her. After his second attempt, she had a message sent to him with the Hokage'sseal, instructing him to stop bothering her guards and to be prepared as soon as possible. He sent her a reply, garbled with many interesting and innovative swear words, but when broken down into normal terms, it said he'd begrudgingly see her on the requested day.

During following days, Hinata locked herself up in the family dojo, only coming out for meals and to sleep, however even for those she needed to be coerced out. Hanabi who had become Sair's temporary caretaker tried her best to keep the excitable little girl busy in Hinata's absence. She didn't mind having to watch over her, but was somewhat irritated that she had been forced to take time off from active missions at her sister's behest. The only reason Hanabi even agreed to do what Hinata had said was because of her blind pleading. Normally she would have thought of her actions as foolish and demeaning, but Hanabi could feel her sister's blind need of the favour, so she agreed. The cost however was that regardless of what happens, when whatever she was doing was all said and done, Hinatawould tell her everything, no exceptions. This was met with a tight embrace and many thank yous, before Hinata ran off back to the dojo leaving a flustered and slightly disturbed Hanabi.

Late in the evening on the third day, once Hinata had finished for the night, she wandered the hallways in the general direction of her father's study. Side passages, small halls, garden paths, she took every possible alternate route to get to her destination as she was not really looking forward to the coming conversation. Some time later, after taking a very round-about path and adding roughly an hour to her travel time across the compound (which would normally have taken around five minutes), she arrived in front of the door to the room which caused her so much dread in her younger years. A light could be seen, flickering lazily through the crack beneath the door so she knew her father was in there. So, after taking several deep breaths and slowing her racing heart beat, she reached up hesitantly and knocked on the door.

"Come in." Echoed her father's commanding voice.

She gripped the brass handle and pushed it open quietly. The study was no different than the last time she had been here, save for Neji not being inside as well. Hiashi sat on the floor, several scrolls open across the table and a small cup of tea sitting on the floor beside him. As she entered, he looked up at her curiously.

"What is the matter daughter? Why are you here at such a late hour?" He asked, a distinct note of curiosity could be heard.

"I…" suddenly uncertain about how she could broach the subject, she tried to find a less direct way of getting to the subject. "I needed to ask you about something, father."

He watched her curiously a moment, before leaning down to the table and gathering up papers to clear a space for her on the other side. After opening a small amount of desk space he looked back to her, "Sit."

Not one to turn down a welcomed invitation, especially considering the vast improvement over her father's normal demeanour towards her, Hinata took off Naruto'sjacket and sat down with it folded in her lap. "Thank you father."

"So daughter, speak your mind."

"Excuse me?" Hinata spoke, sincerely surprised.

In a very 'matter-of-fact' tone, Hiashi responded to his daughter's curious stare, "You have been doing so, so freely lately that I suppose I have just been getting used to it. As long as you remain respectful and mindful of what you say, I will tolerate your outbursts."

"Umm, yes, thank you father." Surprised by her father's uncommon acceptance, she took the statement in stride and spoke quietly, but resolutely, "Father, I'm leaving for a mission in 2 days time."

He arched a wary eyebrow, "So I assume this would be the reason you've been in the dojo so much?" she nodded lightly in response, "And I should also assume that this was a request of Hokage-sama who had previously put you onto an extended leave?" she nodded again, "Very well, what is the nature of this mission?"

She audibly sighed at being asked the previous question, "I can only explain so much to you father, my apologies, but the Hokage's proxy for the mission has demanded that only trace information regarding the mission can be given. I hope you do not mind."

Hiashi watched Hinata for several seconds before his curiosity finally overwhelmed his apathy, "The Hokage's proxy?"

"Yes father, since Tsunade-sama herself is unable to go on this mission she elected one person as her proxy to lead the mission in her stead."

"Who are your team mates for this?" Hiashi was growing more curious by the second, but not allowing it to show on his face.

"Sasuke and Neji-niisan. That is all."

"Neji?" He said, wondering if he had heard wrong.

"Yes father, as the proxy for Hokage-sama, I was able to call him back from his mission."

"…as the proxy, you were able to call him back? Hmmm, that is an interesting bit of knowledge daughter, is there anything else you'd like to add?" Hiashi watched his daughter, casually concealing an amused smile by rubbing his jaw.

"…shit." She said allowed as she realized she had just been caught with her hand in the cookie jar. Mentally she scolded herself, deciding she would need to work on her ability to keep secrets, though she expected little from whatever attempts she would make. "What I meant to say was…"

He raised a hand, interrupting her mid sentence, "What you meant to say was that you weren't supposed to tell me that, were you."

"…No." She suddenly felt like a scolded puppy. "My apologies father, but would you highly object if we forget that I ever said that? It will make this easier for both of us in the long run."

Intrigued by her excuse, he decided to test his luck, "That depends daughter, tell me about the mission and I will tell you how much of it I will forget." Hiashi smiled to himself as his flustered daughter struggled to find appropriate words, it was a welcomed change from her standard panic in the past.

Finally piecing together her thoughts she looked back to her father, "Very well father, but there is one condition."

"And that is?" he asked curiously

"That regardless of how much you choose to 'forget', please don't tell Hanabi."

"That is acceptable Hinata, now tell me, what is to come?"

* * *

Hinata hadn't gotten out of her father's office until near three in the morning. She had explained everything regarding the letter and the current plan without leaving anything out, she may not overly like her father, but he is still a very skilled shinobiand therefore his opinion is one to be respected… generally. It also let her breath freely that her father had agreed to 'forget' their entire conversation.

When she finally got back to her room, she collapsed into bed intent on sleeping soundly, unfortunately some things just never go as intended. As soon as Hinata had dropped onto the bed, Sair who was wrapped up in blankets beside her and actively waiting for Hinata's return, jumped onto her back.

Not having the energy to move anymore, Hinata just lay there, waiting for Sair to calm down… this took a minute, but when Sair finally finished her 'welcoming dance' she plopped down next to Hinata and cuddled up to her chest.

"You're way too energetic for this hour Sair." Hinata said in an exhausted voice.

Sair looked up and pouted, her deep crimson eyes reflecting some of the moonlight, "But mommy, Sair has been waiting for hours!"

Shaking her head, she snaked her arms around Sair's petit form, "Fine, but don't expect me to do anything but lay here." She smiled at the girl, her pillow partially obstructing her face.

Sair squealed happily and untangled herself from the blankets, curling up contentedly in Hinata'sarms. It wasn't long before the sounds of their light snores filled the room, as both quietly slept.

* * *

"Why did you leave me?!" Naruto's pleading eyes bore into her, blood leaked unquenched from his lower lids. "Look at what they've done to me!" Flayed hands came into view, chunks of flesh hung limply from his tattered, bloody and broken hands. "It's all your fault."

"No, please, I'm sorry." Hinata was on her knees, crying, reaching out for him but never bridging the distance between them. A black mist covered everything and was holding her back, keeping her from reaching him, from touching him, from knowing he was really alive.

"Sorry isn't good enough." He stalked forward, the mist receding from his body, exposing countless bleeding wounds. "This all started because I felt pity for you, because I thought maybe you deserved a chance. Well I guess I got what I deserved for thinking that, now didn't I?"

Ragged sobs were all she could muster as she tried to stand, tried to get to him, "N-N-Na-Naruto, p-pl-please."

His tattered hands grabbed her arms and lifted her off the ground, she could feel his cold fingers roughly digging into her biceps, squeezing them painfully. Immediately, he slammed her roughly into an invisible wall of mist behind her, knocking the wind from her lungs.

While she gasped, attempting to regain her breath, he brought his face close to hers, mere inches away. His eyes were no longer a brilliant blue, but a dark red, sinister and menacing. "It's time for me to take back what you took from me Hinata, it's time."

He lunged forward, sinking his teeth deep into shoulder. She screamed as she felt his vice like jaws splinter her shoulder and collar bone. Blood freely poured down her chest as he twisted his head back and forth, ravaging the flesh and bone. He pulled back, tearing loose a large chunk of flesh as he released her and let her sag to the ground.

Blood running down his chin, he smirked and turned his back on her, "Now we're together, just how you always wanted. Aren't you happy?" he watched her coldly from over his shoulder as she gasped for air. "I'm talking to you!" he spun around and slammed his hand into the gappinghole beside her neck and grabbed a part of her collar bone that was still attached. She felt bile quickly rise in her mouthas he twisted it upwards fiercely snapping the bone from her shoulder. Vomit filled her mouth as she grit her teeth against the pain, but she managed to swallow it back.

He held the bone in front of her, tauntingly, "I asked you a question Hinata. Are you happy now? We can bothsuffer together now." He raised the bone to his mouth and bit into it, splintering brittle bone. He turned away and began walking into the mist, "Hurry up and join me Hinata, we can get along just like you always wanted." he faded into the black mist allowing her to see him no more.

"…mmy."

Nothing mattered anymore, at least soon she could disappear.

"Mo…y

Why was someone calling out?

"Mommy!'

Sair?

Hinata lurched upright from her bed, drawing a gasping breath. Blinking rapidly to allow her eyes to adjust to the sunlight, she realized she was still in bed, in her room.

"Mommy!" the small bundle of dark hair and sheets tackled into Hinata's chest, knocking her off balance and causing her to fall off of her bed.

Disoriented, she let herself lie back and watch the ceiling, hoping for it to stop spinning. A moment later, tear streaked eyes came into view, the rest of the little girls face was completely obstructed by sheets. Rubbing her head lightly to try and clear her head, she watched the girl a second before speaking, "What's wrong Sair?"

"Mommy's scared!" Tears dripped down freely onto Hinata's neck.

"No, don't worry about it Sair, I just had a bad dream."

"It wasn't a dream mommy, he's sorry."

"Don't worry Sair, it really was just a nightmare." She reached up and removed the sheet covering Sair's face. "I'm fine, see."

Sair leaned down, resting her head on the side of Hinata's neck, "He's sorry mommy, he just needs a hug, Sair knows, he just needs a hug." Tears still ran freely from Sair's eyes and she clung desperately to Hinata.

"Fine, don't worry Sair, I promise I will." She wrapped her arms lightly around the girl, "So now that that's taken care of, can we sleep a little longer? The sun hasn't risen yet and I don't much feel like being awake before it today." Feeling Sair nuzzle deeper into her neck told her that this was an accepted scenario.

She closed her eyes, holding Sair close and drifted into a blissfully dreamless sleep.

* * *

It wasn't until early afternoon that Hinata awoke, feeling rested yet incredibly sore. She shifted Sairto the floor and stood up, popping her back and neck as she stretched. Content with the release of tension, she sighed and reached down to move Sair to the bed. As her hands reached the dozing girl, she heard someone behind her clear their throat.

Twirling around quickly, she dropped into a combat stance, hands forward and Byakugan active. "Good to know you're more on the ball than before, cousin." Came Neji's cold, condescending voice. He stood in the corner of her room, near the door. He was dirty and dishevelled, his hair a tangled mess, no where near as pristine as his normal appearance.

Relaxing slightly after seeing it was Neji, Hinata dropped her stance and walked towards him, "Welcome back niisan, it's good to see you made remarkable time getting back."

He waited a moment, watching her intently before once again continuing in his normal, degrading tone. "So I received a rather interesting message while I was out on mission near Suna, it seems that you're leading a mission back into the Rain to deal with the leftovers of your last mission."

"Yes niisan, that's correct." She watched him intently, hoping to get an inkling of his current state of mind.

Neji continued as though she had said nothing, "Not that I mind going on this mission, in fact from what Hokage-sama wrote, I'm rather looking forward to it. But I would like to ask you one thing Hinata, why are you leading this mission? You are the inferior in both rank and ability, why would Hokage-sama have chosen you?"

She had been expecting this, but had hoped to be able to hold it off until after they started their travels, it was looking like that was no longer going to be an option. "Well, to put it simply, she personally asked me to do this, and… I accepted. Therefore, for the duration of this mission, I'm acting as Hokage-sama's replacement." She spoke the last part proudly, he noted this and remained silent.

"Then I have only one more question." He paused, formulating the right words in his head, "Can I trust you to get the job done?" She blinked, surprised by his sincere tone, "Will you see it through to the end Hinata, can I trust you to not let your morals get in the way of what we need to do?"

She watched him a moment, his eyes intense and honest, "Yes, I can't even say that I want to give them a chance anymore." Her voice quickly became powerful, demanding attention without raising its volume. "The same goes for you however niisan. If I give you an order you will do it. If I am not going to be second guessing myself, you are not allowed to second guess me either. Understood?"

He rubbed his chin thoughtfully, "That is… acceptable."

"… Umm, thank you? That was strangely accepting of you niisan, I was expecting you to fight it more than that."

He let out a short laugh, "Hinata, have you ever heard the phrase, 'Don't look a gift horse in the mouth'?"

She looked back at him confused, "No, what's it mean?"

He quirked a smile at her response, "It means when you are given exactly what you want, don't complain about little details. I've had a while to think by myself, so I don't blame you anymore… but I still want to take something from them." He turned from her and slid open the door, ready to leave.

"Wait a second." She spoke loudly to draw his attention.

Neji stopped and turned his head over his should, tresses of hair flipping across his back, "Hmm?"

She paused a second, formulating the words in her head, "Thank you. We leave at noon tomorrow.... and the note was written by me, not Hokage-sama."

With a smirk and a nod, he turned back and stepped out, sliding the door closed behind himself. She grinned, evidently pleased that she didn't need to worry about her cousin's mindset too much.

* * *

The following day went by without event and come noon on the 5th day, Hinata stood ready and waiting for her teammates at the gates of Konoha. Few people had been told about the mission, so the only ones to see the trio off at the gates were Hanabi, Sair, and Tsunade. Sair clung to Hinata's leg in what she already knew as a vain attempt to keep her there.

"Sair doesn't want mommy to go." She whined for the 20th time, Hinata just sighed and rolled her eyes.

"Relax Sair, I'll be back in a week or two," she stroked the girls hair lightly. "We'll be back soon, but you have to let go of my leg so we can leave."

Sasuke and Neji paced impatiently while the other two laughed at the little girl. Both men had cleaned up and gathered their things the night before, they were itching to get on the road. Unfortunately their leader seemed to have too much trouble detaching a child from herself.

"But…"

"No buts Sair." Hinata crouched down beside the girl and gave her a light hug. "I'll be back I promise, but I can't get back until after you let me go."

With another pout, Sair reluctantly released Hinata's leg and looked up into her pail eyes, "Okay mommy, just remember to duck, it'll hurt if you jump."

"Sure, I'll remember…wait… what? Never mind, sure, I'll remember. I'll see you in a while Sair, be good for Hanabi." She released the little girl and stood up to face Tsunade and her sister. "Well, we'll see you in a few weeks."

"Good luck sister."

"Good luck Hinata, everything is in your hands."

"Thanks." She smiled and turned to face her two teammates, "Let's head out."

Both men looked at each other and shook their heads in amusement before turning and walking through the gate. Hinata turned to follow before a moment of dawning realization hit her and she turned back to face her sister.

"Sister, I forgot to tell you something!" Hanabi looked quizzically and Hinata shouted to her. "Father was actually calling me by my name the other day!"

She immediately turned around to chase after her teammates. Hanabi looked up to Tsunade, speaking confusedly, "Hokage-sama, do you think she was joking about that last part?"

Tsunade watched Hinata's receding form as she spoke, "I don't know, why?"

Hanabi looked off after her sister as well, "Because if she wasn't joking, then I don't think she realizes what it means when an heir is referred to by her name directly by the head of the clan."

Curious as to the girls tone, Tsunade looked appraisingly at Hanabi, "What does it mean?"

"Except in ceremony, when the current head of the clan frequently speaks to one of their heirs using just their first name, it means that they consider them their equal and are thus officially recognized as the true heir to the clan… I'm thinking if things continue along those lines, it's going to be very interesting when she gets back."

"Indeed, it probably will."

* * *

The three travelled fast, Neji taking the lead and keeping watch for possible threats or ambushes while Hinata kept up with Sasuke and filled him in on the mission details. She felt bad that she hadn't given him a chance to reject the mission, but she really needed his expertise and ferocity for the coming battle. Thankfully, after being filled in on the various parts that he hadn't been able to figure out for himself, he became more amicable towards the mission.

The town they were to meet their contact in was approximately a three day journey, if they could keep up the same pace they were currently moving at, they could make it easily on the second day. All of them wanted to meet with their contact as soon as possible, so drove on without taking any unnecessary breaks or rests for the duration of the trip. Hinata knew she didn't have the same kind of stamina as the other two, so she popped a soldier pill before leaving so that she could keep up with them. So far it had been working without problems.

When they finally made camp late on the first night, they were completely exhausted. However, not wanting to take any more time than they needed, they took watch in three, three hour shifts, ensuring that each got enough sleep to function for the following day, then took off at full speed again some time before dawn.

Other than a brief encounter with a Konoha patrol, lead by some Chunin that they didn't know, they didn't encounter a soul until reaching the town late at night.

Choosing to back up a few miles for safety and camp until dawn, they rested and prepared for the worst.

The following morning the three sat around a small fire speaking in hushed voices "So, Neji." Hinata spoke calmly, going over the plan for a second time, "We're supposed to be meeting this Shashu on the southern edge of the village near a small farmhouse. You will make contact alone while we watch from afar with my Byakugan. If it's a trap, focus on defence while we close in for support and attempt to flank them. If it's clear, give us the sign and we'll come meet up with you. If anything unexpected arises, use your own discretion, we'll try to give you support as best we can. I trust your judgement. Clear?"

"I can work with that." Neji nodded, satisfied with the plan.

"It makes sense, but why him? You or I could do this just as easily." Sasuke inquired. He wasn't whining, rather it seemed that he was honestly asking her.

"It's pretty simple actually. While we have our own defences, they're more difficult to maintain and perform than Neji's Kaiten. Unless they figure out how to disable it, Neji could probably continue to defend himself for an hour without being overwhelmed." She suppressed a smirk as she saw the connections forming in Sasuke's visible eye, "That work for you Sasuke?"

"Yeah, I can deal with letting Neji be the bait. Not that I'm one to turn down a fight, but I'll leave the 'being sneak attacked' up to the guy who cane see behind his back."

"Wow, I feel so honoured that you'll allow me to do this Sasuke. Now go to hell." said Neji bitterly.

"Okay then boys, before this degrades further, let's leave the plan at that." Hinata stepped between the two men glowering at each other, "We leave in ten minutes so get your things together."

With an irritated huff, the two men stalked off to gather their necessary supplies. Hinata just stood back shaking her head, asking herself why her teammates had to be so stubborn. Ten minutes later, they met up with her in the middle of the camp, ready to head off.

They let Neji move ahead, keeping about 500 metres between them as they moved towards the place they were supposed to meet Shashu. As Neji came into view of the old farmhouse, he saw an old man sitting outside on a tree stump, smoking a pipe. After taking a quick scan around the area to make sure there was no one waiting in ambush, he hesitantly approached the old man.

When Neji moved within 10 meters, the old man spoke up, "Hold boy, who are you?" His voice was vital and strong, with only a hint of the hoarseness of age,

Neji appraised the man a moment before responding, he wore loose, but warm clothing and had tanned skin with no hair on his head. He had a farmer's build, average height, while being somewhat muscular. "I'm a representative from Konoha, are you Shashu?"

The man quirked an eyebrow at Neji's comment dark green eyes showing from beneath his bushy brow, "That all depends if you mean any harm to Shashu or this village."

"We have no intentions to do anything of the sort."

"Fine, fine." His cool voice seeming to have calmed the man, he stood, dusting himself off while still smoking his pipe. "Wait here a minute, I'll call for him." Hunching slightly, he meandered over to his house and disappeared through the doorway.

Hardly a minute later, light puffs of acid green smoke came from the house's chimney, and a few seconds after, stopped completely. Shortly after that, the old man walked back out, holding an opaque bottle in his off hand, "He'll be here soon, care for a drink in the mean time?"

"No thank you." He said, eyeing the bottle distrustfully.

"Suit yourself." The man unstoppered the bottle and drank deeply from it, then with a whistle of satisfaction, he put the stopper back and sat back down on his tree stump.

The old man made no further attempts at conversation while Neji stood around aimlessly. After five minutes of waiting, he began to pace. No other sounds, nothing had entered his Byakugan range and he was getting irritated, where was this guy?

"Hey old man."

"That's not an overly nice way to refer to your elders, but what is it boy?"

Neji's eye twitched at being referred to as a boy, but he refrained from pressing that matter, "Where is this guy? I figured he'd be waiting nearby to see your smoke signal."

Smiling broadly, "Oh, he's nearby. He's probably watching you to make sure you're not actually a threat. I wouldn't worry though, if he thought you really were one, he would have already shot you."

"Shot?"

"Now Parkins," The voice came from immediately behind Neji, "Don't be telling people what they don't need to know."

Neji spun around, dropping into his Jyukken stance to face the man behind him. The man was short, 5'2", maybe 5'3" and had incredibly pale skin, even paler than Sasuke's, he still looked young however, mid 20's maybe. He wore comfortable, forest coloured clothing with a hooded cloak and held a long, thin metal and wood pole in one hand. A leather strap attached to the pole wrapped loosely around his wrist as he stood watching Neji through his left eye which was a pale brown, his right eye however, remained closed. He slid back his hood revealing a mess of short, tangled, brown hair and smiled at the combat ready man in front of him.

"Relax, I have no interest in fighting you. I was just watching to make sure there weren't going to be any problems."

"How did you get so close without my sensing you?" Neji was surprised, but hid it in his voice.

"Well, that's a little difficult to be explained, but I suppose it can best be explained like this." He took a step closer to Neji, "You are a ninja, I am an assassin. There is a distinct difference between our skills Neji."

Taking the assassin's comment as a threat, Neji narrowed his eyes and readied a strike should the man take a step closer.

"Well shit, I was warned about pissing you off. Will you please calm down? That wasn't intended as a threat." He leaned his wait on the pole in his left hand, trying to give a relaxed appearance.

"Who warned you about us." Something was nagging in the back of his head, something the man had said was putting him more ill at ease by the second. The man's comment had just forced him to ready himself, it was something else, something more subtle.

"Hold on a second friend, Parkins, go home will you?"

"Yeah, yeah." The old man stood up and wandered off, back into his house.

"Okay, now listen kid," Neji narrowed his eyes at the comment, "Don't get pissy with me, I'm not intending on demeaning you when I say that. So listen, I know you have your allies back over there," he gestured down the path Neji had taken, "and if I had really wanted to kill you I would have. So pull your pride out of your ass and call your friends over, I don't much feel like needing to explain who I am multiple times."

Neji watched him for a few seconds before raising his hand and forming a few quick signs in the air. Watching from afar, Hinata saw Neji give the sign for a cautious approach, and decided to react accordingly.

"Sasuke, flank around from the left. Keep in cover just in case." He nodded and slowly moved through the forest towards the target, Hinata however stood from cover and walked directly towards her cousin and the man.

The man turned to look at Hinata as she approached through the light forest, her long coat catching on small trees and branches as she passed.

"So," Neji spoke, turning the man's attention back on himself. He broke his combat stance and stood up straight, towering over the small man. "You're Shashu I assume?"

With a hint of a smile the short man spoke, "Yes, that would be me."

"Can I ask you why you're helping us?"

"I already explained that in my letter, they caused the death of my brother."

"Yes, but you also wrote it was us who killed him."

A sad smile leaked across Shashu's features, "Yes… you did. But I do not blame you for doing what you needed to. I blame those forced him to do what he did for false power.

"You mean you don't blame us entirely, correct?" Hinata's calm voice echoed in as she walked up beside the two men, Naruto's black coat covered in brambles.

"That I cannot deny lady Hinata."

Her eyes flared as she lunged forward, grabbing him by the collar. However, in one fluid motion he used the pole in his left hand to flip himself over and upwards, leaving her holding his cloak. "Now, now my dear, that was uncalled for." He spoke, hanging some ten feet of the ground from a tree, using his legs to hook a thick branch.

"How do you know my name?" She glared up at the man. At that moment it clicked in Neji's head as well, the nagging feeling was that the man had called him by name.

"Oh… that… I forgot, my apologies." He pulled himself up so he could comfortably on the branch.

"Apology not accepted, how do you know our names."

"I can explain that easily enough, though I request that we discuss this at my cabin. It is not something I can discuss out in the open." He dropped down to the ground in front of them. "If that is amenable, I would ask that you two and your friend Kakashi follow me."

"Kakashi?" They said in unified confusion.

"Your friend that is currently sneaking up from my flank." He said nonchalantly.

The pieces clicked together in Neji's head as he understood, Sasuke and Kakashi had very similar appearances save for their hair colour, so it wasn't surprising that someone who was probably just running off a description would make that mistake. Paying active attention to the man's reactions, he asked, "Who gave you our descriptions?"

"A friend, and until we are somewhere where I can guarantee no one can overhear us, I ask that you let me leave it at that. So Kakashi," Shashu turned and faced directly at Sasuke's hiding spot, "are you coming or not?"

Sasuke stepped out of hiding, watching the man curiously, "I'm sure he would if her were here, but I think you're looking for the wrong person."

Shashu examined him a moment, still keeping only his left eye open. "Oh, I recognize you now, you were with lady Hinata on the first attack. My apologies, your appearance is similar to what I was told a Mr. Hatake Kakashi looked like."

"Well that's grand, aren't you proud of yourself." Sasuke spoke in a distinctly irritated tone.

"Please sir, I meant no offense. Could we please move on though? I would like to ask your name but I can't really be away for too long and there are to many things we cannot discuss where it is possible to be watched or overheard." Turning to Hinata he held out his hand, "If the lady wouldn't mind, could I have my cloak back? It is a bit cold recently."

Still uncertain about the man, she held out the cloak, to which he nodded gratefully and took it from her hand.

"Why are you so much more civil with Hinata than myself?" Neji asked the man accusingly.

"Hmm, chivalry is a dying art my friend," He said in a mater-of-fact way, "There is no reason that a man shouldn't be respectful to a lady."

"Right then… So where are we going?" Neji spoke as Shashu draped the garment around his shoulders.

"It's really not that far, it's only about a kilometre to the east. I do not know how fast you are, but I'm sure we can get there quickly enough. Now if you'll please follow me." He took off at a sprint due east through the light forest.

The two men looked to Hinata, waiting for input. After a moment she sighed, "Come on, let's follow him." With that they took off after him. After a short while, he slowed down to a brisk walk, allowing the three ninja to catch up.

Once they all arrived near him, he pointed up a small hill, a little ways off that had a dense thicket of trees, "We're heading up there, the trees part in the south-west corner and my cabin is inside."

Without an argument, they walked around the incredibly dense thicket to its south-western corner, where there was in fact a thin path that could allow someone to walk through. After passing through several metres of a winding path through the trees, they came out into a decent sized clearing which contained a worn, old log cabin. It's stained wood roof, large balcony and large windows made the home look surprisingly comfortable.

"Come inside then, you don't need to worry about being overheard here. This area has wards on it, so we can't be spied on," He walked to the cabin door and waited for them to join him.

After a moment hesitation, they decided to move up and join him. While standing beside the door, Hinata looked to Shashu again curiously, "So why…

Cutting her off mid thought, Shashu spoke intensity, "Please, questions after. First I'd like to return the belongings that I mentioned in the letter, I am sorry for continuously delaying your questions, but please bear with it a little longer."

He creaked open the door, allowing them entry. A dull, flickering light from a fireplace gave a warm but shadowy illumination to the small house. Many hunters' trophies could be seen adorning the wall and in the far corner, a small bed with thick, fur blankets could be seen. A closed door was on the left wall, leading to probably some kind of kitchen area, and on the far wall beside a window, there was a short end table and a currently occupied wood chair covered in extra blankets.

The person in the chair turned away from the window, the light in the room only casting spatters of light across their face as they spoke in a hoarse but recognizable voice, "Hey guys, took you long enough."

They were all silent for a long time until Neji finally broke it with a pensive voice, "Ten Ten?"

* * *

Shashu – Marksman


	9. The plans change

Neji slowly stepped into the cabin, walking across the small room one step at a time. Hinata moved to walk in after him, but Shashu placed his hand on her shoulder, stopping her from moving forward. She turned her head to look at him, seeing him smile and shake his head as he manoeuvred her away from the door and closed it silently.

Sasuke and Hinata looked up at him, confused and suspicious, causing him to respond to their unvoiced question, "She asked me to give them some time alone when you all arrived."

Still a little disbelieving, Hinata continued to watch him, "Was that really Ten Ten?"

"Yes, it is." He answered calmly, "But before we get on with the questions, I really think we need to discuss her current condition. She asked me to make sure Neji was away while I did so now is the opportune time."

"Her condition?" Said Sasuke in his calm, monotone voice.

"Yes, I need to know. Are any of you medical ninja?"

"I know some," Hinata said, hoping whatever was needed was within her abilities, "however I am only trained in support and basic techniques. Why?"

"Shit, this will complicate things slightly."

"I asked why is it so important that we're medical ninja?" Straightening her posture, Hinata took on an imposing countenance.

Sighing loudly, Shashu sat down on the hard wood of the porch and leaned against the door. He gestured for the other two to follow his example, to which only Hinata seem to follow his example. "Ten Ten can't move."

"Hmm?"

"Transporting her here almost killed her. If you were to take her home in her current condition she probably wouldn't survive the trip. Even if she did, it would probably cause even more permanent damage, and personally, I think she has enough to suffer through as it is."

Rubbing the sides of his head, Sasuke looked up into the clear blue sky and sighed mournfully. Turning back to them he spoke calmly, "I'm going to look around and make sure nothing is coming. Hinata, brief me on her status when I get back."

Seeing his discomfort, she smiled to him in understanding and nodded, "Very well. Don't be too long Sasuke." He nodded to her in consent and quickly disappeared into the trees. Seeing she was being watched curiously by her host, she turned back to him to explain, "He's had his fair share of troubles, and I'd assume from his reaction that he doesn't like to hear about others'."

"Ah, fair enough, so I should take this to mean you'd now like to hear what her current injuries are?"

Hinata was silent for a long moment before her voice finally crept out of hiding from deep within her own fear of the answer, "Yes, what are her current injuries?"

He paused a moment before answering, seeming to take a mental tally, "Well, there's a lot, and I have a feeling that you may regret wanting to know later on, but I promised her that I'd tell you, so regardless of my own feelings on the subject, I'll have to tell you everything. What would you prefer to know first? The injuries I'm treating or the injuries I can't?"

"Let's start with what you can't treat so I know if I'll be able to do anything." Hinata spoke, growing more worried by the minute.

"Very well. I've been able to brace most of her broken bones, but I'm not a medic, so I couldn't do much else."

"Ugh, this is already off to a bad start!" she thought to herself, "Does she have many?" She asked, hoping for the answer to be no.

"Yes, quite a few actually. Both of her knees are broken and she has a vertical fracture through her left femur. Her right arm is broken in three places, as well as all of her fingers on that hand and lastly she has four cracked ribs." He tapped his lip in thought, running a double check in his mind. "Yes, that's all of them. As is obvious, she also has fairly extensive muscle damage and more than likely, the bones will need to be re-broken and set properly, but I've done the best I can on those fronts. As for the rest…"

"Wait," Hinata cut in, "Is there a lot more?"

"No, those are the majority of them." He saw Hinata loose a deep sigh, "But as I said, these are just the things that I can't really treat. I've been tending to the rest of her injuries since I brought her back, so most of those are at least stable and not getting any worse. Thankfully she's been fairly drugged up since even before I got her here, so she hasn't been feeling too much pain. Though considering how much I've had to give her I'm surprised she feels anything at all." Seeing her baffled look he explained himself. "I'm an assassin I told you friend, we are very skilled with poisons and other narcotics. I've been using some diluted drugs to leave her mostly numb. If I didn't, I'm fairly certain she would be unconscious almost continuously from the pain."

"Oh." She wasn't pleased at all about the fact that Ten Ten was being drugged, but she couldn't argue with his reasoning, so she opted to remain silent instead.

She nodded her head, prompting him to continue, "She has second degree burns along most of her chest, back, and some of her face, lucky for her however, that I am quite apt at treating burns. I've had to deal with a lot of black powder, so I've had to tend to my own injuries fairly often. In all likelihood, there won't be any facial scarring, she will have some on her body though. I have limited supplies and saw it as more the prudent choice to have what she shows to the public be scar free."

"You treated her chest?"

"Yes."

"Then you…"

"Yes, I've unfortunately had to become far more familiar with her than I had ever planned and I would really appreciate it if you could refrain from telling Neji about that, I don't much feel like dying before I manage to make things right. Remember, she can't walk so I've been helping her with everything… I'm just very glad that my wife doesn't know about this. I'd be in a great deal of trouble even considering the circumstances."

Hinata wasn't certain what to think or say on the matter, she was embarrassed to the point that her cheeks flushed bright red, but glad that the man had cared for her friend and not done anything to hurt her while she was vulnerable. Finding her voice amidst her own embarrassment, she spoke slowly, taking a light tangent in hopes of recovering some of her dignity, "Why is your wife not here?"

He smiled sadly, waiting a long while in silence before answering, "I can't see her now. Until they're gone, I'm just a deserter, so I'm a danger to my own family."

"Oh," realizing the question had only made it more awkward, she decided to return to the original topic, "S-so, are those all Ten Ten's injuries?"

"No, not by a long shot, but the rest are pretty much treated already. She has plenty of small and large lacerations, but most have either started to heal or I've been able to stitch up. Unfortunately, there's also the possibility that she has injuries I haven't been able to see or identify, which is why I don't want to move her again until a medical ninja or at least a proper doctor have been able to see her."

She let out a long breath that she hadn't realized she'd been holding, "Terrible, but it's better than I could have hoped for. The only thing I can do for her though is set the bones properly."

Smiling slightly he rubbed his closed eye, "I'm sure she'll appreciate it regardless."

"I'm sure she will." She responded in a laugh, but stiffened immediately, "Why is she in this condition? Why do this much to her?"

"Ah, that… I was wondering when we'd get to that question." He seemed uncomfortable with the question, but continued speaking regardless. "After being captured, they interrogated her. Unfortunately, they generally didn't like what she said so they put her to work… to which she was not too amenable. So to get her to a state of cooperation, if you'll excuse my language, they beat the living shit out of her, multiple times."

"So… basically what you're saying is that they beat her until she couldn't fight back, then raped her." She said, swallowing back her own disgust,

"Unfortunately… yes. I worked in the detention area and I was in the room when they broke her knees… it was painful to watch."

"Wait, you watched?" Surprise rippled across her features as she stared disbelievingly at Shashu.

He looked back at Hinata, confused, until the implication of what she said shot through his mind and he quickly waved his hand in front of his face in a denying gesture, "No, no, no, god no. I'm an honourable man and that type of action is truly debauched. I believe there is a place for interrogation and torture, at least to some degree, but not that. Thankfully I was able to find proper timing to run away with her after only three days, so she didn't need to deal with it for long. The things they did to your friends were the last straw for me. I'm just glad that I'll be able to make some of it right before I die."

Her sombre eyes were touched with pity for the man, "Your letter also mentioned your death, why are you so certain that you're going to die?"

With a wry smile, he shook his head and spoke calmly, "Because I'm going to die. I have a little less than two weeks to live at the moment."

"Why do you know so precisely?" her voice still sombre.

"Because within the organization, everyone who knew any secrets was required to drink a potent poison, and unless we took a vial of the anti toxin every four weeks, it would kill us. The poison is heavy metal in nature so it remains in the organs, but through use of the anti toxin, it prevents residual damage. I received my last dose the day before you all attacked, so at most by the five week point, I'm going to die."

Utterly appalled at the control fashion, Hinata spoke without thinking, "That's disgusting, how could you stand to do that?"

"It was all for my brother, but alas, he's gone now." A bitter smile touched his lips as he thought back on what had happened.

"But…"

Shashu cut her off as she began to protest, "Don't worry about me, I deserve this at the very least."

Finally seeing that argument would get her nowhere, she chose a middle ground, "But if there's an antidote already made, why don't we just get it for you."

He shook his head, allowing his face to turn more sombre, "The anti toxins are individually made for each of us because the poisons are each slightly different. If we take the wrong one, it'll kill us."

"Hmm," Hinata cupped her chin in her hands, thinking deeply a moment.

"As I said, don't worry yourself about it. I appreciate your concern, but I am content with my decision. Even if there was a chance, chasing hopes is not what I do, I'd rather die content with what I had done than die scrambling and panicking while trying to find a way to live."

His face showed how serious his comment was, Hinata just shook her head, "We'll leave it at that for now I suppose."

"Thank you," He bowed his head slightly to her, "I believe partly that my own death will help atone for what we did to your friends. Though truly, your blonde friend was a monster."

Her eyes flared before narrowing menacingly as she realized that he was speaking of Naruto, "Don't talk about Naruto that way. He died protecting us and I won't stand for anyone insulting him."

He raised his hands defensively, "I didn't mean that as an insult, I only meant to imply that he was a truly brutal combatant."

She quirked her head curiously at his statement, her anger forgotten in the moment of confusion, "When did you see him fight?"

"After that wall of wind he had conjured came down, your friend charged the men who were waiting nearby. He killed almost twenty men before we managed to take him down."

Her curiosity turned sour as a bitter smile filtered across her lips, "Good. I can't imagine him dying without leaving a message of his strength behind… though I have enough difficulty just thinking about him being gone…"

She pulled her knees up and hid her face against them, wishing that she could be alone with her own jumbled thoughts. They were silent for a long moment as he watched her appraisingly. Only when he saw the trickles of tears leaking down the visible sides of her face, did her thoughts on their last missing companion became evident.

"Ah! I see now." He placed a hand gently on top of her head that, to his surprise, was not shaken off, "You're having a hard time with all of this aren't you?"

Her muffled voiced sounded from behind her knees, "Maybe, I've been acting really different than normal lately. Hell, I don't even know why I'm telling you this. I didn't even know you more than an hour ago."

He smiled to himself, amused that he was acting like a father to not only a stranger, but a girl, who at most was 10 years younger than himself, "I have no reason to judge, so speak your mind. Maybe speaking to a stranger would be better than speaking to a friend in this case?" He could hear her suppressing a chuckle, but to little success.

After seeming to think about it for a few seconds, her quiet voice echoed around her knees, "When I got back, the stress was making me act on my pride and be more direct… a lot of things happened because of this. But now that we're on this mission, and that I know Ten Ten is safe, all the emotions that I bottled up are making me act even more irrationally than normal. These moment to moment mood swings are really driving me crazy."

He laughed aloud, causing her to quickly sit up, knocking his hand away and glare at him through reddened eyes. She readied herself verbally bite into him but he cut her off before she could begin her tirade, "I'm not laughing at what you said, I'm laughing at how this all sounds." She continued to glare, unconvinced, "Heh, I was thinking that you sound like a woman, pregnant with her first child."

She continued to glare, though her face flushed a light shade of pink, "Gee, thanks. I'm glad to know that in my moments of depression, I'm able to be so amusing. I think I'll be crossing off the 'Confide in a stranger' line from my list of things to do when depressed now."

Still snickering, he continued, "I don't intend to be mean by saying that, you sound like my wife did just before our daughter was born."

Still angry, she returned her face to her knees in order to hide her own embarrassment, "Oh… whatever. It's still not something you should use to compare."

He tried to put his hand on her head again, but this time it was shaken off. Smiling, he looked up at the sky before speaking again, "So he was your lover then?" He could tell he struck a cord when her entire body stiffened and her hands dug painfully into her legs, "Oh, so it was an unrequited lo…"

There was a quick flurry of motion between the two. In the blink of an eye, Hinata lunged from a crouching position and grabbed Shashu from the collar, pulling him to his feet and slamming him against the door. In the same violent motion however, Hinata felt a metal tube pressed against the side of her head and saw Shashu's right eye open. His right eye was a blank white, save for the two intersecting black lines over where his pupil should be.

"Now then my dear, please calm yourself down. I'd prefer not to have to hurt you." She heard a clicking from the tube pressed to her head, like the sound of a weapon joint, snapping into place. "I'll admit maybe my last comment was a bit tactless, but slapping me would have been far more prudent."

Taking several deep, calming breaths, she released his collar and stepped back from him, "I'm sorry. As I told you, I've been a bit wound up and what you said just kind of pushed me over a little."

Closing his right eye, he pulled away from her head what appeared to be a smaller, one-handed version of the weapons they had destroyed in their first raid. He slipped the weapon behind his belt where she heard another light click as the weapon was likely disarmed. "I can understand your stress, and I do apologize for my lack of tact. Your friend though was a tough one, that's for sure. It's unfortunate that they put him in the tank, I might have been able to get him as well when we escaped."

"Get him as well?" She parroted him in confusion.

"Yes, after capturing him, he was put into the maximum security cell."

"But you said that he was killed?!"

"I said that we took him down, not that we killed him."

"They don't mean the same thing?" Her thoughts were so jumbled at the moment, she was having trouble processing her own conversation.

"No, in my line of work, 'taken out' means killed, 'taken down' means incapacitated. We shot him close to thirty times, but by the time we checked him out after downing him, he was still breathing, and healing slowly on top of that." Her eyes brightened for a moment before he cut in again, "Please, don't get your hopes up for him to still be alive. The tank is truly terrible, it breaks even the strongest of men after a few days, and he'd have been in there for two weeks by now."

She smirked, staring at him defiantly, "You've never met someone as strong as he is."

"No, listen!" He desperately needed to get across to her the atrocity of the tank, and he wasn't looking forward to the description, "The tank is primarily for psychological assault, but it functions as a modified torture chamber as well."

"So?" her voice echoed even more defiantly as the flames of her hopes were gently fanned back to life.

"So?" He was taken aback by her overtly blasé comment, "So, the tank is effectively a self contained sarcophagus! The main focus of the assault is sleep deprivation through electric shock and intense heat, but there are also clamps in several areas meant to rip and tear the flesh. Even with your friend's ability to heal quickly, he'd eventually bleed out."

"But you didn't confirm him as dead before you left, correct?" Her defiance didn't dwindle, even when faced with terrible odds.

"No, I'll admit I was a little too busy dragging your half dead friend out of a pit in the ground to pay much attention to a sealed room." He didn't like being snide, but he was afraid things would fall apart if she put all her hopes into something that was so improbable. "Please don't look a gift horse in the mouth here and pin your hopes on something that's so unlikely."

"That's enough!" There was power behind her words, and much to his own surprise, Shashu stopped cold, "I appreciate what you're saying Shashu, but what you don't understand is that right now, I am acting in Hokage-sama's place. The original mission has not changed, nor will it. However, if there is any hope, regardless of how small, that we could find and return Naruto home with us, we will take the appropriate course of action."

"But…"

"I'm sorry but this is my final word on the subject. We will be just as thorough as we would have been, however when we enter the detention center area, we'll scour it for this 'tank'. Come worst or best case scenario, we'll bring him home with us."

He watched her for a while, standing resolved in her course of action as her long black hair swayed in the light wind. Her pale lavender eyes no longer showed any signs of the tears she had shed only a few short minutes before. Shaking his head in defeat, he looked up to her and said, "Fine, then I guess you'll need to know what to look for."

* * *

Inside the small house, oblivious to the going-ons outside, Neji kneeled before the chair containing his thought to be lost lover, a confused yet happy smile playing across his lips. Even in the shadowy light and amidst the many bandages, he could see her eyes and knew she was Ten Ten.

He slowly reached a quivering hand towards her face, but her left hand intercepted it and interlaced her fingers with his, "Nice to know you missed me." Her voice was hoarse, but bore a deep note of affection and sincerity.

His normal, resolute and powerful demeanour failed him as all he could bring himself to say was, "It's really you, isn't it?"

A small giggle escaped her lips as she was caught between amusement and disappointment that Neji's first words at seeing she was alive were so simple. "Not quite the same as you left me, but you could say that. I'm a bit more fragile at the moment though."

He stood up, still holding her hand and eyed her up and down. Both of her legs were braced straight with several rounded sticks and bandages, and were set at a downward angle so her weight wouldn't rest on them much while she sat. Her right arm was wrapped heavily in thick bandages to restrain its movement, and was resting loosely in a sling around her neck. Her body was mostly covered in blankets, but from the material he could see around her shoulders, she was wearing what probably amounted to a simple turquoise dressing gown.

Bandages were firmly wrapped up to her chin, leaving her face and left hand to be just about the only exposed skin she had. Her face itself was a deep red, similar to someone who had just gotten out of a hot bath, and her left eye was swollen, leaving it half open. She smirked to herself when she saw his eyes register the surprise at seeing her braid in the place of her odango, but he said nothing on it, and for that she was glad at the moment.

She squeezed his hand reassuringly, pulling his attention away from the unpleasant details of her current appearance, "So, what? No cheering? No dancing? No screaming in thanks that I'm alive?" Her tone was serious, but she couldn't keep the edge of her lips from tipping into a smile.

With a short laugh, Neji shook his head in amusement, "It's actually kind of depressing that you're going to have to deal with hours of that from Gai sensei and Lee when we return."

Her smile quickly turned into a pout as she realized the truth of his statement. In all likelihood, when Gai and Lee found out that she was alive, she would be up to her neck in 'Power of Youth' preaching and be unable to run away. She squeezed his hand again, this time pleadingly, "Can I stay with you when we get back? You can protect me from them can't you?!"

Deciding it to be the best choice to sate the whims of his newly recovered girlfriend, he just smiled and nodded.

The two remained in silence for several long minutes, looking into each other's eyes, uncertain what to say. A thump against the door shook them from their trance, causing both to look to it curiously, however after several seconds of no one saying anything on the other side or attempting to open the door, they assumed it to have just been someone bumping against it from outside.

As she turned back to him, she felt sudden warmth pressed against her lips as Neji had leaned in and captured them in a quick but tender kiss. She returned the affection in kind, bringing her usable hand up and around the back of his neck holding him close to her. They stayed that way for a long moment, the kiss never intensifying under a mutual fear that it may hurt her.

After a time, she finally broke away gasping for air. A content smile on her lips, she looked into Neji's eyes, "Like I said, it's nice to know you missed me." The playful note in her voice made him chuckle lightly.

They spent the next while in light conversation, content with the close proximity of each other. Deciding not to bridge the topic of her experiences over the past weeks, Neji kept the topics steered to non-hostile territory. She didn't mind the calm conversation and was quite curious in fact of the going-ons in Konoha since she had left on her previous mission, especially considering she hadn't even been in town for a full day before being shipped off on the last mission.

* * *

Hinata sat on the ground by herself around the side of the building, since Shashu had wandered off in search of Sasuke several minutes ago and had yet to return. She was excited at the newfound information, but wasn't sure how she was going to incorporate her new plan into the current operation. In truth it was very simple. The problem was what Sasuke and Neji's reactions were going to be. She was certain Sasuke would likely be all for it, but Naruto had abandoned Ten Ten in favour of saving the others, so there was no guarantee that Neji would be up for adding the rescue attempt to the plan.

She grumbled and mumbled for a while, until a familiar shadow crossed the ground in front of her. Without looking up she addressed him irritably, "So, feeling better now?"

Though amused by her snarky response, Sasuke suppressed his chuckle, not particularly wanting to draw the ire of the moody princess. He decided it was best not to further sour her mood, so he humoured her, "Yeah, I'm fine. I just don't like being holed up in one place for long periods of time."

She looked up to him, rolling her eyes, "And I guess that's why you've hardly left Sakura's room over the last two weeks?"

He knew she was baiting him, but he reacted immediately and couldn't stop himself from jumping at it, "That's different Hinata!"

"Oh… I know." She taunted with a knowing grin.

He glared at her a few moments, annoyed, before loosing a resigned sigh, "It's depressing that I'm already missing the old, uncertain, shy, feinting every five minutes Hinata."

A humoured laugh escaped her lips, "Well Sasuke-kun, you're just going to have to deal with it then, aren't you? I'm not really up to changing back, especially not for you."

"Yeah," He shook his head, admitting his inevitable defeat, "I've noticed. That aside, what's happening? The old man came around and said you wanted to see me."

"You shouldn't call him an old man. At most I think he'd be around Kurenai-sensei's age. But yes, I did want to see you, I needed for all of us to sit down and discuss the mission." She stood and began walking around to the front of the cabin.

"You sure you shouldn't give them some more time?" The corners of his lips curled into an amused grin.

"They'll have plenty of time later, besides, I'm sure they'll save their real reunion for when were back in Konoha." She smiled to herself as from the corner of her eye she saw Sasuke stumble from her comment.

Hinata knocked on the door and after a few seconds, Ten Ten's hoarse voice could be heard from the other side, "Come in."

Hinata opened the door and walked in with Sasuke in tow. Neji was sitting beside Ten Ten's chair on a stool that he had pulled over, his hand interlaced with hers. Both Hinata and Sasuke took in Ten Ten's current appearance and mentally logged it, deciding not to discuss it until later.

"I see you two have become pretty comfortable, should we have given you a little longer?" Sasuke asked seriously as he exchanged a glance with Hinata, not trying to hide his grin. She merely shook her head and rubbed her eyes.

Neji cleared his throat in embarrassment. Ten Ten however, put on a mock pout and responded, "Oh would you? That would be grand."

A moment before returning with his own rebuttal, Sasuke was interrupted by the presence of a firm hand on his arm. He looked over his shoulder to the pale eyed young woman behind him, silently asking her why she stopped his fun.

"You guys can tease each other later, okay?" Her voice was nonchalant, as though she had dealt with this kind of behaviour far more often than she had. "For now I'd like to discuss the mission." Her words had the desired effect as both men turned to face her with rapt attention.

Ten Ten looked back and forth between the two normally belligerent and difficult men. It was amazing. She had only ever seen them so compliant in the face of the Hokage herself.

"Umm, Hinata-chan… they're creeping me out, what did you do to them?" Though her fear was a fabrication, she was in fact curious as to why they had all suffered such uncharacteristic changes to their personalities.

"Hmm, what do you mean?" Hinata looked between the two men, not understanding what Ten Ten was talking about. Both men smirked at her continued confusion.

"Right then," Ten Ten realized that Hinata herself probably hadn't noticed, so she addressed the other two instead, "So why are you two being so compliant? Not that it's a bad thing, but you guys hardly ever listen to anyone."

Sasuke looked up to Neji, his smirk ever present, "So I guess you were too busy to explain things to her?"

Neji blushed a stoic crimson color before managing to stutter out his own rebuttal, "Damn it, no we weren't. I just didn't think about it you cocky bastard."

"Explained what?" Ten Ten interjected curiously.

Hinata's voice came through lightly but was overwhelmed by the other three as they spoke, blotting out whatever she had said.

"Well, for one she's the current team leader." Sasuke stated plainly.

"She is? But both of you outrank her." Ten Ten's curiosity continued to be stoked.

Again Hinata spoke, but once again she was drowned out by the others.

"Yup, and also she's here in acting proxy for the Hokage herself." Sasuke spoke again, earning a dumbfounded look from Ten Ten, "That doesn't mean much to me though. Honestly, I don't really like or respect the Hokage for much more than her power."

"Watch what you say Sasuke, you speak ill of both the Hokage and my cousin. If you continue it is likely to come back and bite you." Neji said calmly.

A third time Hinata tried to speak, but continued to be drowned out by the others.

"I'm just speaking the truth. The only reason I'm so… compliant, as you say, is because Naruto trusted them both implicitly, and he is one of three people who I trust. Therefore, at the very least I will respect them in memory of him."

"WILL YOU ALL JUST SHUT UP FOR A DAMN MINUTE?!" Her patience finally wore out as she screamed at them as loud as she could. Thankfully it had the desired effect since all three others stopped talking immediately and looked to her. "Damn, it's about time. Argh! You can discuss this all later, right now we're discussing what's happening tomorrow. That's all! Is this understood?" She could feel a vein throbbing on the side of her head, it was almost like she had three, ten year old Naruto's in the room. She waited a moment, and when the silence remained, she went on, "Good, we will be attacking in the early afternoon tomorrow. We'll leave mid morning so we can be there and scout so that adjustments can be made to our timing and plans. Lastly, we will be making one major change to the designation of the mission. This will no longer be primarily a search and destroy mission."

"What? Why not?" Sasuke shouted back at her while the other two just looked perplexed.

"Because this is now designated as a rescue mission, search and destroy is a secondary."

His anger cooled by his confusion, he decided he had to ask, "Rescue who?"

She smiled, a flicker of the last time she saw him flashed through her memory. Even though it was forced on him, his lips had been warm and comforting, a sensation that she wished to have experienced many times more.

She blinked pushing the memory into the back of her mind, "Naruto, he's alive, I know it."


	10. The beginning of the end

The three other ninja looked back and forth between each other, not really believing their evidently still heartbroken friend.

It was Ten Ten who broke the awkward silence that had built up over the past few seconds, "Hinata, I don't mean to burst your bubble, but you know he's gone right? I was there, remember."

Hinata smiled a humourless smile, "Yes I remember, but I've also come to understand more now than I did before."

Ten Ten groaned, shaking her head in mild irritation, "Hinata, please don't be like this. I saw him while I was there. They brought him by while I was in chains and I can tell when someone's not breathing, plus he was bleeding all over the place." Sasuke and Neji looked to her curiously, not having anticipated this response, "So please, Hinata, don't take unnecessary risks to chase a dream. We all cared about him, but I don't want to lose anyone else, please."

Hinata glanced at the tight grip her cousin and Ten Ten had on each other's hands. She smiled briefly, understanding the other woman's fear, but she knew that no matter what happened, she could not back down from her ideals, "I'm sorry Ten Ten, that's out of the question. But out of curiosity, have you thought about why they'd have brought a corpse into a jail?"

"Hmm? What are you talking about?" Ten Ten responded, thoroughly confused.

"Well, you said you saw him, but I'd assume they kept you in some kind of jail rather than the hallway or something."

"Yeah, so?"

Realization dawned in the eyes of the two onlookers as the formed the mental links. Unfortunately, Ten Ten was still drawing a blank.

Deciding not to wait for Ten Ten to figure it out on her own, Hinata explained, "So tell me, why would they bring a body into a jail if there wasn't some reason for it to be restrained… like still being alive?"

"Oh come on Hinata, that's just… umm, unlikely… crap." Ten Ten glowered irritably up at Hinata as she wore a victorious grin, "That doesn't mean he's still alive." she moved sharply and cringed as her body rejected its forced movement. After taking a moment to regain her composure, she grunted and continued her point, "Consider what they did to me in just a few days. It's been more than two weeks. Don't let your imagination cloud your judgement."

Hinata glanced between the two who had yet to contribute to the subject at hand, "What do you two think? I've been having some trouble for the last few weeks, but would you say that I'm crazy? That I'm letting my feelings cloud my judgement?"

"Damn Hinata, that's not what I said?" Ten Ten barked, once again moving sharply and causing herself to grit her teeth in irritation.

"Ten Ten, will you shut up?" Sasuke spoke in a dark tone, "Honestly, I would say that Hinata has gone a bit crazy lately, but if she has real proof that there's a chance to get that idiot back, I say we do it."

Hinata eyed him with distinct irritation, she appreciated his confidence but she disliked being directly insulted, especially by someone who was supposed to be her subordinate. Ten Ten moved to mouth protest against the foolish Uchiha until Neji reached beneath her chin and turned her head to look up at him. She winced at the unpleasant angle for her neck, but allowed herself to be moved.

"Do you think we wouldn't do the same if it was you?" His voice was calm, but carried sufficient force to emphasize his point.

"But, that's… that's not the point." She was flustered and confused, trying hopelessly to explain her reasons, but never quite being able to do so.

"But it is," Hinata's voice was very quiet, but perfectly audible in the small room, "My own feelings aside, if there is any hope of getting him out of there alive, regardless of how small, we should take it. He was willing to die for us, why should we be any different?"

"Damn it, I… ugh. Fine, do it. But you all better come back to me alive, especially you mister." She did not speak in an affectionate manner when she narrowed her eyes at Neji, rather it sounded more demanding than anything else. The two others figured it was just Ten Ten being possessive, that is until she continued a moment later, "You're the only one who can protect me from 'The Power of Youth' duo, because I'll be damned if I'm willing to deal with them alone."

Hinata had the decency to cover up her moment of laughter as a sudden cough. Sasuke however appeared to have no intention of maintaining her level of decency, "Hey whitey, aren't you glad that you amount to a locked door in the eyes of your girlfriend?"

"What did you say?" Neji took a menacing step toward the laughing Uchiha, which did little more than edge him on since he had no idea if he was reacting to the name or his comment about Ten Ten.

"Come on, that was hilarious."

"You rude bastard." Neji raised his fist to strike the unwavering Uchiha, but stopped dead before he was able to lunge. Seconds later the laughter stopped, replaced by a ragged gasping as both hot-headed men collapsed to their knees.

A disgruntled look passed over her face as Hinata withdrew her hands from the ribs of her companions and cracked her knuckles threateningly, "I think you both need a time out."

The other woman craned her neck to look down and what she was tempted to refer to as testosterone filled monkeys and smirked, "Well not that I like the idea of you hurting them, but at least now I can see why you're in charge Hinata. Apparently testosterone does not equal good decision making skills, but consider who is on my team, I already knew that."

Turning her attention back to Ten Ten, she spoke seriously with a slight hint of amusement in her voice, "It seemed necessary, and there are several reasons why she put me in charge, but I suppose this would be one of them."

Neji managed to lean himself so he could look up to his cousin, a mixture of surprise and amusement. "Hinata… how did you… learn that?" His voice was erratic as he repeatedly gasped between his words.

"What, the Shinkei Hari?" She turned to look at him, vaguely amused to see him taken down by a single unexpected strike. "Simple, I watched you two develop it so I knew the theory, and the last few days I've been teaching myself to use it… though I've made a few modifications to it since we already have the jyukken."

"Oh… that explains… a lot." He was gradually regaining control of his breathing, but it was still difficult to speak.

"So, now that that's dealt with, you two can consider this my first order for the mission. No fighting with each other. Got it?" They both reluctantly nodded since actual speech was proving difficult. "Good and Sasuke… if you're going to be a bastard, can you please do it discretely and not antagonize us?" It took several seconds, but eventually Sasuke nodded accepting the additional condition.

"Good show, and quite effective I must add." Shashu walked in from the front door, still leaning on pole he held in his left hand.

Ten Ten brightened with the arrival of the older man as she waved him over. Not one to turn down an invitation, he walked around the two disabled figures and moved behind Ten Ten and ruffled her hair in an almost brother-like manner. Neji eyed the man awkwardly but was in no condition at the moment to do anything.

"I'm glad you came back Shashu, I know you described the sarcophagus to me, but I need you to give me details about the facility and its defences." The two men looked up, curious about the sarcophagus comment, but were as of yet incapable to respond.

"Ah yes, you'll need to know that wont you. Umm, maybe it would be best if your friends could ask questions too since it would be best to only need to have this question and answer session once. Is there a way for you to undo what you did to them?" He in fact seemed genuinely concerned for her two, rather pitiful looking friends.

"I suppose so. After all, they did say they would act appropriately." Hinata reached down and placed an open palm against each of their stomachs. After a moment of concentration, she withdrew her hands trailing strings of pale blue chakra that quickly dissipated into the air. "That should do it."

Over the next few seconds, their breathing slowed to a normal pace and they began pulling themselves to their feet.

Neji coughed a bit as he brought himself up to a standing position. He turned curiously to Hinata deciding to voice his question now rather than wait and risk forgetting, "How did you remove the effects Hinata, Naruto's dissipated over time?"

"As I said cousin, since I can use the jyukken, I was able to develop it further. But enough side tracking," She turned back to face Shashu, "If you'd describe to us the defences."

"Very well, so where should I start?"

* * *

The sun slowly dipped into the horizon, gently tingeing the sky a mesh of red and orange. Several hours had passed in which Hinata, Sasuke and Neji picked at Shashu's brain, learning all they could about the facilities general defences and occupants. The facility in question was apparently about as sprawling as the last one, and also contained a fair amount more population. There were only a handful of areas containing traps, though unfortunately one of the areas was the holding cells. Within the enemy ranks there were two whom Shashu referred to as assassins similar to himself, and five ninja who were apparently quite capable. The ninjas he knew very little about save their appearances. The assassins however, he was able to give them a significant amount more information.

Dale'elen was a true master of stealth, they would never see him coming or leaving if he didn't want them to. Dale however had a penchant for one on one combat. He liked to prove he was better than his marks by killing them head on without trickery, then leaving without a trace. His favoured weapons were a scythe and two mining picks that he kept strapped across his back. Shashu had never seen him use his scythe, but how he used his picks was pretty straight forward, brutal and almost instantly fatal. If he could connect with a decent hit then it was very likely that the target had at least one of their internal organs ruptured.

The second assassin was Karin Toroku. She did not favour stealth in any way, rather she would charm her way to her targets, kill the mark with her rather substantial arsenal of poisons, then charm her way out. When forced into combat, she fought with shortened scissor katars that she always kept on herself despite that she tended to wear very little clothing. He had never seen her fight, so he couldn't give any details on her actual combat style. However he did inform them that Karin was very acrobatic; therefore it was very likely that she would use her mobility and flexibility to her advantage.

"Alone either one would be an incredibly skilled adversary. Working in conjunction with others or worst case scenario each other, they would be ludicrously powerful opponents." Shashu raised his voice in order to emphasize the point.

"Fair enough, what about the standard troop armaments? I'm fairly confident that we could deal with troops in small groups, but if we need to focus on larger prey then their weapons could become an issue." Hinata asked in a tired, but interested voice.

He sighed, they had listened to everything he said and even begun formulating plans on how best to infiltrate the facility, but he still didn't feel they were really prepared for everything. "The majority of the troops will have fairly standard ninja weapons, kunai, swords, a few explosive notes. After all, most of their members are low ranking deserters from other ninja villages or conscripted militia. A small percentage of the troops however will be equipped with these." He held up the strange metal and wood tube that he favoured for a walking stick.

"Staves?" Questioned Sasuke in a curious tone.

"Not quite," Shashu smirked at the man's ignorant response, "This is an arquebus, a long range black powder weapon. I've modified mine a bit so that it has less smoke and can be reloaded a little easier, but essentially it is the same weapon."

"Black powder weapon? You use explosives inside your weapons?" Neji eyed his weapon distrustfully.

"In a manner of speaking yes. We load these with small pellets of lead and a limited amount of powder, and then we ignite the powder. The pellet flies significantly faster than a weapon can be thrown and will almost always prove fatal. If you guys want proof as to what kind of damage they can do, why not ask lady Hinata, she was hit by one." The others looked at her curiously, not having realized that she had been hit by one of these weapons previously.

Confused, she cocked her head questioningly, "I was never hit by one of these."

"I beg to differ, actually I'm surprised you still have your right hand since I shot you in the wrist."

"My wrist?" It took her a moment to remember when her hand had been slapped away while reaching out, "Oh! Yes, I remember now… wait, that was you?"

"Unfortunately yes, no one else among us could have hoped to hit such a small target at a hundred and fifty feet. Still, you must have been very lucky to get away with your arm intact."

"Actually, my coat is armoured, that's probably the only reason I left in one piece."

"Oh… well then. My apologies for the injury regardless." He scratched his head bashfully as he tried to deter the oncoming awkward silence, "So back to the weapon. If you're hit with one anywhere in the torso or head, there is a good chance of a fatal wound. If you're hit in one of the extremities then it will almost certainly be disabled, but you're more likely to survive. But it's not all bad news, like any great weapon developments, usually there are downsides. The primary weaknesses of the arquebus are firstly the low accuracy of the weapon, outside of fifty feet it's likely that the projectile will lose substantial velocity and deviate significantly from its original impact point. Secondly the large amount of smoke produced each time the weapon is fired, if three were to fire in sequence in a hallway, there would be substantial and lasting smoke cover. Lastly, each shot needs to be manually loaded through the muzzle, this means you pout some powder, drop the shot into the barrel, and add some more powder. Unfortunately, If you add too much powder while reloading, the gun will explode, likely blowing off the users hands and if they're unlucky, a chunk of their face as well. I can reload mine in roughly two to three seconds, the average other person will take at least six, so use your time wisely."

"Good to know…" The three ninja muttered in unison.

* * *

They continued to discuss the defences back and forth until the moon was already high in the sky. Their planning had taken many potential outcomes into account and would hopefully allow them all to make it out of there is one piece. Unfortunately, the many unknown factors left a lot of blank spots in their ideas.

After the long night of discussion and having to make decisions that may or may not result in their failure, Hinata opted to relax outside on the grass. From her back she watched the stars shine across the deep purple of the twilight sky. A cool wind blew across her, pulling her thoughts away from the atrocities that would occur the next day. She may have accepted that she would kill these people, but taking dozens of lives still didn't sit well in her stomach. Even the simmering flame of vengeance in the pit of her stomach was not enough to excite at the idea of the coming brutality. She sighed, voicing her thoughts, "Maybe it's a guy thing."

"Maybe it is, but I can't answer that until I know what you're talking about."

She bolted upright, surprised by Shashu's voice suddenly breaking into her calm night, "Damn it, will you stop doing that?"

"Doing what? I figured a woman who could see in the back of her head couldn't be surprised so easily." His voice was playful and amused, though his eyes betrayed a note of seriousness. She grumbled something about 'details' and 'men', but he couldn't make it out so he ignored it.

"So what brings you out at this hour?" she asked curiously, setting aside her previous irritation.

He walked over and dropped down beside he on the grass, "I wanted to talk to you once the others had gone to sleep. I felt it would be somewhat demeaning to ask in front of too many people."

"Oh, what about?" She had to admit she was curious about whatever it was that he would feel out of place asking in front of the others.

"I want to come as well." She looked at him curiously, seeming to find his question odd, "I wish to join you all in the attack. I need this for myself, to be able to accept the end. I need to make things right." He spoke calmly, with a powerful resolve behind his voice.

"But…" She began to speak, but he cut across before she could properly respond.

"Please, I am doing everything I can to help you stop them, but I want to be part of this as well. I would like my family to at least be proud of me in the end." His fear of not being accepted to come became evident as his previous resolve melted away into desperation.

"I know and…" Again he interrupted her.

"Even if it's just a small role, please, I want to help." Hinata did not attempt to speak after his rather pitiful prostration, she just sat there and watched him. After an uncomfortable minute he couldn't maintain the silence, "Would that be a no lady Hinata?"

"No, but I'm getting really sick of being interrupted lately." She glowered at him, distinctly irritated.

"My apologies, I lost track of myself." He bowed his head lightly in hopes she would forgive his excessiveness.

"No apologies needed. However, as I was going to say before you interrupted me… twice! Why are you asking if you can come? Of course you're coming." For a moment, Shashu sat there, unable to form words, so Hinata continued, "Everything from your letter to your mannerisms has screamed that you wanted to go back and get your own revenge. I can understand you asking, but why would you feel it necessary to explain your every action to me."

Finally finding his voice, he chewed his lip while forming the words that would make him feel less stupid, "So you're saying that I didn't need to go through all that. That I just needed to say 'Would you mind if I came as well'?"

"Basically, yes. We can talk about it more in the morning, but for now rest assured that you will be joining us." Her voice sounded reassuring, but Shashu still felt like a fool for his over reacting.

"… Right then, so that's it?" He stood up and turned away from her to walk back to the house.

Hinata sighed and lay back down on the soft grass, "Hey Shashu, have you ever heard the term 'Don't look a gift horse in the mouth'?"

"No." He said simply.

"Well now you have, so go get some sleep." She smirked as he wandered off mumbling something about not liking horses.

* * *

With the morning light, a mild rain came in, obscuring the horizon and slicking the hills and fields for miles with thick mud. The five individuals sitting within the warm confines of the wood cabin were enjoying some last minutes of relaxation and planning, while all secretly dreading their inevitable departure; however only two among them were thinking so with regards to the rain.

The majority of the morning for the men had been spent preparing the necessary supplies for their departure. Hinata however, had been up since the early hours breaking and resetting Ten Ten's broken bones. Even with the use of her jyukken abilities to numb the pain in certain areas, it had still been…difficult. Even she wondered where she dragged up the willpower to be able to break her own friends arm, several times. Unfortunately, Hinata couldn't do much for her friend's knees considering they had been broken with some kind of hammer. This meant that there were dozens of small fragments floating around in the area and there was no way she could set them properly. As for the arm and femur, the breaks were fairly clean so she was able to set them without any problems. Lastly, with regards to Ten Ten's broken ribs, they appeared to be healing fine on their own so Hinata opted to do nothing about them for the moment. All told it was a painful and/or exhausting morning for all of them.

Currently the five sat comfortably around a wooden table that Shashu had dragged in from the other room. Even though Ten Ten was far from mobile, they were able to drag her chair over to the table thanks to its flat bottom. At one point after they had eaten a light breakfast of dried fruit and tea, Shashu had brought in several glasses filled with some kind of bitter bean soup. It was unanimous among the gathered ninja that the drink was quite vile, but its revivifying effects couldn't be ignored.

"So, the rain should cover our approach, but once we get there, there'll be the problem of not being able to hide our footsteps inside the facility." Hinata stated, calmly detailing the inconveniences of the weather.

"True, but if we're lucky they'll have decent drainage, unlike the last place." Sasuke interjected before taking another sip from his second cup of Shashu's soup concoction. He grimaced at the bitter taste, but was pleased with how well the disgusting liquid made him alert.

"That would only be hopeful thinking my friend. The facility has often had troubles with flooding." Cut in Shashu's voice as he doused their hope with a pale of cold water and reality.

"Quaint, I just hope that the rain doesn't get any worse. I'd rather not have to worry about drowning indoors being a possiblity." Hinata said sarcastically, "We'll need to assess the situation when we get there. It's useless to argue now." The others nodded in agreement, "Okay then, the last thing we need to take care of before we set off is we have to send a message back to Konoha requesting a medic." She turned to face the bored looking Uchiha who was finishing off his cup, "Sasuke-kun, any chance you could send a snake with the message?"

"No," He said flatly, placing his empty cup on the table, "I haven't been able to use Kuchiyose for a while now. The animals don't acknowledge me anymore. Why doesn't one of you two do it?"

"We can't." Came Neji's calm voice, "Hinata-sama has never been able to master the technique, and I refuse to enter into such contracts."

"Thank you Neji, but please do not answer for me." She made a mental note to speak with him about refraining from speaking for her in the future. "Shashu, how'd you send us the note in the first place?"

"I borrowed a carrier pigeon from town. Is there a faster way though? Their pigeon will probably take around a week to arrive at your home."

"What about me?" Ten Ten spoke up, raising her good hand to draw the other's attention.

"What about you?" Sasuke muttered apathetically.

"I can use Kuchiyose." She said cheerfully.

"…"

"…"

"…"

"What?"

"You can what?"

"Really?"

"What's a Kuchiyose?"

The four ninja turned to Shashu, momentarily confused by the man's ignorance. It was only a few seconds, but Ten Ten was the first to realize that Shashu was not in fact a ninja so he wouldn't know the names of their techniques. She chuckled quietly before bringing herself to answer the man's question.

"Kuchiyose is a summoning technique. We sign pacts with different life forms and can summon them with an offering of blood."

"An offering of blood?" He quirked an eyebrow, emphasizing his curiosity.

"She didn't mean it like that." Hinata said as she bit through the skin on the tip of her thumb, and then held up the lightly bleeding digit to make a point. "You only need a drop of blood like this, but it has to be your own."

"Strange, but I believe I understand. It would likely make more sense though if I were to see it myself." Shashu nodded, his curiosity at least somewhat sated.

"Well, assuming one of these three can lend me a hand to perform the signs, you'll be able to see it." Ten Ten smiled as she held out her hand to Neji, who in turn wordlessly accepted the offer and interlaced his own hand with hers, forming the appropriate sign.

A grin tweaked at the corner of his lips as he laughed to himself of the irony of needing to give her a literal hand with her jutsu. "So what are we summoning?"

"You'll just have to wait and see I suppose." The corners of her lips tilted into a slight smirk.

"Listen, can you just get this over with, I'm getting tired of waiting. You can flirt later." Sasuke's bored voice echoed across the table.

"Fine, fine… Bastard." The last word she spoke beneath her breath so that only she and Neji could hear. Withdrawing her hand from its connection to Neji, she raised it to her face. The thick pads of calloused skin that coated the fronts of her hands stared back at her unpleasantly, alas, the curse of using nothing but projectile weaponry. Choosing the better part of valour she turned her hand around revealing the smooth skin of the back of her hand and bit into the back of her knuckle. Now with the warm trickle of blood running down her finger, she once again laced her hand together with Neji and formed the appropriate seals, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu."

Lines of blood wound out in a spiral sigil as she placed her hand firmly on the table. A blast of smoke momentarily obscured everything as a small, ball-like shape could be seen through the haze. After a few seconds, the smoke completely dissipated revealing a spiky black ball about the size of a beach ball, covered with a mixture of black and white spines. It didn't move or react to the presence of anyone; in fact everyone other than Ten Ten just stared at the strange object, not quite certain what it was.

"Kazan!" Ten Ten yelled happily as she reached a hand out towards the spiky ball, holding it a few inches away from its spine covered surface.

In response to Ten Ten's voice, the ball shifted slightly, rocking back and forth for a second until a small, snouted head poked out from the middle of the mass of spines. The face was completely black like the rest of the body, but the eyes were a brilliant ember orange.

"Ten Ten? Is that you?" The animal's voice was surprisingly deep and masculine, though it was marred by a slight dry rasp. The furry head quirked back and forth as though trying to get a better look at her.

She laughed as she reached out and stroked his furry head, "For better or worse, yeah. I'm glad that you came." The others looked awkwardly at the animal, all of them still trying to figure out what it was.

"I can definitely see the worse part. What happened?" The ball rocked back and forth for a second before unrolling itself into a small rodent-like animal, about two feet in length and around six inches across. It had four stubby legs tipped with short claws and was coated in a slick black fur everywhere but its back, where its black and white spines were interspersed. It scurried over to the edge of the table and stretched its neck several inches so it could lightly rub its nose against her shoulder.

"That's a long story Kazan, and if possible I'd like to save it for later. Okay?" She smiled as she pulled her arm around and scratched beneath the rodents chin.

"Sure, but next time have some grubs for me. So what can I help you with Ten Ten?" Kazan rolled back onto its hind legs, taking on what could only be described as a sitting position and using it's quills as a support. A subdued sizzling sound could be heard from the white spines as they etched black lines across the tabletop.

"Well it's only indirectly that I need your help today. My friend Hinata," She pointed behind Kazan at where Hinata was seated. In response it rolled its head to the side in an exaggerated and blinked up at the young lavender eyed woman, "she needs you to deliver a message for us. Would you be willing?"

Kazan turned its head back to the front and rested its snout against one of its fat paws. After a moment of what seemed to be deep thought, it looked back to Ten Ten, "Fine, but only cause you're hurt. Next time you want a messenger though, summon Tatsumaki. You know how I hate the rain."

"Thanks Kazan, you're the best." Kazan placed his paws together and elegantly spread his quills as though to impress her point further. "So then, why not introduce yourself to everyone?"

Dropping back down to all fours, Kazan turned around to face the rest of the table, "Good morning young ones. I am Kazan Whitemane, third order of the Guardinal and combative representative for Ten Ten of Konohagakure. Hedgehogs normally don't mind the rain, but I personally hate it, so be glad that I'm willing to do this for you in this weather." He sat waiting for a few seconds, but none really seemed sure what to say. "Just give me your damned message already and tell me who's receiving it."

"Ah," Hinata found her voice and began to explain in a clear and concise tone, "We need you to deliver a message to the Hokage back in Konoha saying the following." She waited a second for the hedgehog to get ready. After a moment it nodded to her and she continued, "As a direct request of the proxy for the Godaime Hokage, Hyuga Hinata requests the immediate deployment of any one capable medical ninja to the initial rendezvous point. The sooner the better. You got all that?" She asked the hedgehog curiously, hoping that that rodent had a good memory.

Kazan ran over the message a few times in his head before nodding and repeating the message word for word. "So then, will that be all?"

"Yes, that's all. Thank you for your help Kazan." Hinata said quietly.

"Good." Kazan turned around and scuttled over to the edge of the table beside Ten Ten. Once again he propped himself up on his hind legs and stretched out his neck, nuzzling against Ten Ten's arm. "Be well young one, and don't forget about the grubs next time."

"Don't worry, I wont forget." She laughed, amused by his selfish statement.

"Good to know." He said with a nod as he disappeared in a large puff of foul smelling smoke.

Neji fanned the sulphur scented mist away from his face as he raised a wary eyebrow at Ten Ten, "You definitely keep interesting company these days. So when did you make the contract?"

She smiled up at him while likewise dissipating the smoke with her hand, "It was about three months ago. One of the women I was working with was a ninja from the hidden stone who could summon hedgehogs. At one point I was speaking to one of her summons who was helping us transport a large amount of supplies and it asked me if I wanted to sign a pact. Naturally I had both the summon and the woman who summoned it tell me the pros and cons of signing the pact so that I could think about it properly. In the end, I decided to go with it." Neji merely nodded, accepting her answer.

Hinata cleared her throat loudly, drawing the attention of everyone at the table, "Well, now that that's taken care of, I think it's about time to get down to business." She rose slowly from her seat, placing her half empty glass on the table. Her gaze hardened as a grim smile spread across her lips, "Everyone pack up, the mission begins now!"

* * *

******************************  
Shinkei Hari no jutsu – She's using the same jutsu that Naruto used in the first chapter 'Nerve Needles'  
Arquebus – This is one of the predecessors to the musket. Single shot, unreliable, but still lethal.  
Breaking and setting – If a bone is broken and not set properly before it begins to heal, the bone often needs to be rebroken and set again because otherwise there could be major problems somewhere down the line.  
Kazan – Volcano  
Tatsumaki – Tornado

Hey guys, glad you're all still enjoying the story. Thanks a lot for the various reviews, I always appreciate hearing that people enjoy my writing, so please keep reviewing :) Next chapter will begin the mission so I hope you enjoy this one in the interim. I have a few papers to write for school over the next two weeks, and I want to make the next few chapters something awesome, so I'll take a little while. Don't worry though, I'm finally getting the story to the point I've wanted to, so there's no way I'd stop now.

Wharehouse


	11. A step in the right direction

For hours now, the biting rain had doused their spirits. Within an hour of leaving, the mild shower had intensified into a torrential downpour and had thus nearly doubled their travel time. The three ninja had been ill prepared to face nature's vengeance, but now some six hours later, they were within sight of the facility and soaked to the bone.

With no caves to take refuge in within the low foothills around the facility, the unit backed off to a dense thicket about a kilometre east of the area. Unfortunately the trees did little to stem the forceful rain, but at least they were able to block out the chilling wind.

"So," Hinata said as she shivered, causing rivulets of icy water to leak down from her bangs and glue them to her pale cheeks, "considering the situation, I'm fairly certain that flooding is going to be an issue."

"Wow, your insight never ceases to amaze me Hinata." Sasuke's childish retort echoed annoyingly as she glared at him through squinted eyes. Her patience was running very thin and she had little interest in his antics at the moment. However seeing her irritation only egged him on, "Have you any other profound words of wisdom or precognitive knowledge?"

"You mean other than telling you that you're a bastard and to piss off?" The brief silence thereafter told her that he had not prepared any immediate rebuttals, so she continued, "Yes, because of this ludicrous rain we're going to be encountering flooding for sure, this is pretty obvious. That being said, the flooding should also give us some advantages. If we take out the exits and sabotage whatever drainage systems are working, then we could completely flood the facility."

"That is an intriguing idea lady Hinata, but would that not mean that we would drown as well?" Shashu spoke uncertainly, obviously sceptical of the merits of her idea.

"That would be the case only if we destroyed all the exits."

"Okay, then what are you suggesting. Please describe the entire plan rather than pieces otherwise we will simply criticize all the pieces separately." Neji spoke calmly as he watched Hinata curiously.

Hinata became flustered by her cousin's marginally insulting comment, but after a few seconds was able to catch up with herself and explain her idea, "Okay then, this mission as you all know is both assault and rescue. Correct?" They all gave a quick nod, "Then taking the new situation into account, we have three mission points: Ascertain whether Naruto is alive and if so rescue him, elimination of the enemies within the facility, and elimination of the facility."

"What do you mean elimination of the facility?" Sasuke interjected in a questioning tone.

Glad that Sasuke was deciding to be curious over aggravating, she decided to answer him rather than just ignore him as she was starting to feel that he deserved, "There are weapons and facilities in there that we don't want other groups to be able to get their hands on. I want this place flooded entirely so that nothing inside can be used again if possible."

"Fair enough, get on with your idea then." He had too admit that he was curious what she was planning.

"Good. First of all, since there are four entrances to the facility, I want all of our entrances to be separate."

"Separate? Wouldn't that be too risky?" Neji spoke up curiously.

With a sigh she continued, "Yes it would be dangerous, but without doing so we couldn't seal all the entrances." She raised her hand to prevent them from interrupting her for the moment, "Now before you all start cutting in again, let me finish. I want all of us to enter the facility through different entrances, and while Shashu holds one and prevents people from escaping, we'll blow the doors behind us as we enter the facility."

"Okay, that's a fair strategy, but that still doesn't remove the problems we'll encounter by being separated." Sasuke spoke, his tone calm.

"If we don't split up, it will take too long to get out. If we set the facility to flood after rescuing Naruto, then there's too much chance of survivors overwhelming Shashu, if we do it the other way then we may not be able to get out in time. Because of these, we all need to take different routes and focus on different tasks."

"And what would be our allocated tasks lady Hinata?"

She smiled, glad that at least Shashu was not criticizing her ideas before they were made, "Shashu, you will guard the last entrance and ensure that we have a safe retreat. Additionally, you will eliminate anyone who approaches the door unless they are accompanied by one of us. Sasuke, I want you to locate some kind of drainage station and sabotage the pumps. I don't know that much about machinery so I leave the method entirely in your hands. Lastly Neji, you are significantly more practiced with the Byakugan than I am, therefore I would like for you to move through the facility and kill anyone you come across while using your eyes to spot stragglers through walls. Try and head towards the officers quarters to check if anything could be useful for us. Is that all understood?" She looked around at her gathered allies, they all nodded in confirmation, but Sasuke had a wry smile that she didn't trust. Deciding she'd probably scold herself later for asking, she looked to the smirking man, "What's so funny Sasuke?"

"Well I was just amused that you left the rescue out of the assigned missions."

"So? What's so funny?"

"Nothing, I just found it amusing that you're going out of your way to be the one to rescue him."

Her eyes narrowed as her face flushed in slight embarrassment, "Sasuke, will you grow up and take this seriously? There are four of us, and exponentially more of them. If you really think going in there with a broken nose will help your odds of getting back out then I'll be more than happy to oblige you. Otherwise, if I see you so much as smirk before we're on our way back to Konoha, I'm going make you regret it."

Though Sasuke was far from afraid of the young Hyuga's abilities, he was wary of women who could level such a threatening tone towards him; it vaguely reminded him of how Sakura would often threaten Naruto. With a dismissive wave of his hand he looked away from her, "Fine, fine, I'll tease you later. Just get him out of there and don't make us need to drag your ass out of the fire."

She rolled her eyes and shook her head, she had no idea how Naruto and Sakura had put up with his cocky attitude for all these years, "Right, so that aside… let's move out!"

The small unit returned to the foothills around the facility, continuing to curse the constant nagging rain. Once in sight of the facility, Neji had used his Byakugan to locate the patrols that were above ground and the unit then split up to silently remove their threat… it was a brief and effortless affair.

Sasuke returned to their meeting spot weighed down by four of the black powder weapons and a like number of packs. Dropping his load to the ground in front of Shashu in a mass of clanking, he laughed, focusing his attention on the man in front of him, "How can you see these things to be a threat? If they don't see us coming then they can't even defend themselves, so why would these weapons make a difference in our need for caution?"

"Sasuke…" Hinata started forward to scold the aggravating man, but Shashu raised a hand to halt her.

"Now Sasuke," Shashu spoke, his tone calm, "I've explained this to you all before, but maybe you need another round of it in a more direct description." Sasuke snorted indignantly but Shashu merely ignored him, "If I were to hit you with a throwing needle from a hundred feet, would it damage you?"

Deciding to humour the older man, he spoke indignantly, "No."

"Now what would happen if after being hit with the needle, I pounded the end of it with a sledgehammer?" Sasuke did not respond, "Now what if instead of the needle, I just put a foot long nail on the end of the sledgehammer and hit you with it? That is more or less what it feels like to be hit by one of these. All it takes is a lucky shot, so watch yourself." Sasuke huffed and turned away, leaving Shashu to plunder the weapons and packs for additional munitions.

After performing a final scan of the surface using Neji's Byakugan, the four grouped together in a final huddle.

"Alright guys," Hinata's voice was confident as she spoke to the three men for what she hoped would not be the final time, "I'll be going in through the north entrance. Sasuke, you take the east and Neji the west. When you have finished your designated tasks, head to the south entrance and provide support to Shashu until we're all accounted for. After that we leave and seal the entrance behind us. We good to go?"

"Yes lady Hinata."

"I've been ready for ages."

"Ready."

She smiled one last time despite uncomfortable rain beating against her back, "All right, good luck everybody."

Shashu stood knee deep in water as he pushed open the large metal door built into the hillside. Once the door was free of its lock and partially opened, the built up water poured through the opening, pushing the door open the rest of the way and almost taking him off his feet and down the dark stairway.

He looked down the stairs, seeing nothing but flickers of a broken light bulb. The water rolled down into the gloomy darkness, licking the worn stone stairs. With an irritated sigh, Shashu stepped through the door into dingy stairway.

Once inside and out of the rain that thankfully was blowing in the opposite direction that the door was facing, Shashu readied his weapons. He had taken the additional arquebus along in case he needed faster additional shots, after all, it was better to be safe than sorry. After a brief two minutes of drying and loading, all of his weapons were ready to go and now all that was left was to wait for the signal.

A few seconds later, the sounds of a large explosion echoed up to him, moments later an additional two followed. Signal having been given, he moved down the stairs into the tunnel below.

It was a short stairwell, only about twenty steps so very quickly he stepped out into the three-way intersection at the base of it. The water was at his knees but much to his appreciation seemed to not be rising further. Glancing around the multiple paths, he could see the normal lighting had apparently blown and all that was left was the interspersed emergency lights, coating everything in a gloomy partial illumination. He set the spare guns on the stairs against the wall so that they could remain mostly dry and were within reach to be used at a moments notice.

Opening both eyes, he looked between the three paths again and stopped on the right one, grinning slightly, "Well time to get to work I suppose." He pulled out his larger weapon, aiming it down the dark hallway and pulled the trigger. There was a loud crack like that of a hammer being struck against a stone wall accompanied by a slight puff of smoke and somewhere a ways into the darkness, the splash of something falling into the water could be heard.

"Next."

Sasuke hated this mission more and more from the moment he entered the facility. His entrance had been a trap door inside a run down shack. Thanks to the building being overhead, the ladder leading down had been mostly dry. After setting up a fairly large amount of explosive tags at the top of the ladder, he climbed down a bit to get a better look at what he was moving into. The room below was fairly small and there were a few partly submerged metal crates in the corner, while a single path lead to the west down a dimly lit hallway. Initially the water didn't look so deep, unfortunately after reaching the bottom he realised that there were in fact two crates in each of the piles in the corner and that the water level was roughly up to his shoulders.

Grimacing at the combination of the freezing water and poor lighting, he waited for the expected signal near the path further into the facility. It was only a little while before he felt a large explosion rock the facility, at which point he quickly threw a kunai with an explosive tag at his previously placed tags and quickly waded down the dark hallway before they had a chance to explode. A few seconds later he felt the shaking from his own tags exploding, closely followed by another explosion somewhere far off. A rain of rock could be heard behind him, splashing into the deep water, but he paid no mind only intent on moving forward to get this mission over with.

The dim lighting from the interspersed emergency lights only offered shadowy illumination so other than seeing outlines and shapes, he really couldn't pick apart details about his surroundings. As he moved, the path gradually ascended until the water was only up to his waist, and while still uncomfortable, at least this offered promise of him being able to manoeuvre and fight back when he inevitably encountered others.

The tunnel continued straight with only a few stairways appearing on either side, all of them descending into the watery darkness below. He consoled himself that he didn't really need to check them out since likely anyone in them was either already out, or already dead.

Soon the not so distant sound of voices echoed to him from up ahead. Uncertain as to how far ahead the threat was, he slid down into the chilling water so that only his nose and up were exposed. Now well concealed, he half swam, half crawled his way up the tunnel until he could make out what the voices were saying.

"I don't care!" A young man's voice shouted.

"If you don't care so much then leave, I'm getting tired of your bitching. A little danger and you wanna wet yourself, pathetic." The cool, condescending voice of a second person scolded the first. The voice was a little deep, but didn't sound masculine so he couldn't identify the gender.

"Are you calling me a coward?" The first man spoke defensively.

"Yes." The second person said bluntly.

"You bitch! One of those explosions felt like it was nearby, so you should be scared too. Any normal person would be."

"It was a ways off. You're just a coward, just like I said."

Sasuke decided it was the optimal time to move forward since the voices were getting louder and more distracted, so he hustled until he was beside the doorway where the voices were coming from. The room was on the left side of the hallway, allowing the shadows of two people to flicker onto the opposite wall of the hall giving Sasuke a rough estimate of their builds. Neither appeared larger than himself, but he figured he could risk a glance into the room since the two's argument appeared to be getting more heated by the second.

The room was little larger than a big closet, maybe 10 feet long and at most 8 feet wide. A gas lantern hung from a hook on the ceiling giving solid illumination to the room while two people sat on crates above the waterline talking animatedly. The man on the left had scraggly brown hair with a pale complexion, he was short and fairly well built, but unless he could do something Sasuke didn't know of, he could be easily overpowered. The other person apparently who was apparently a woman, sat across from him while still bickering in an androgynous voice. She had short black hair framing the tanned skin on her face and sat with a katana beside her on the crate. From the low angle he was at, he couldn't see the color of either of their eyes, but it seemed incredibly unlikely that either of them had blood limits, or they wouldn't be in the ass end of the facility. Both of them wore the same kind of armour set up, a thick vest with linked ceramic plates covering the upper arms and thighs.

Like a crocodile stalking his prey, he submerged completely and silently moved forward between the boxes that the other two sat on, neither seeming to notice him. Beneath the still waters he thought over what would be the best course of action to take. It was a few seconds before an idea slipped into his head that caused him to grin maliciously.

The argument between the two had simmered down to an angry glaring match, and since they were both distracted, neither suspected what was about to occur. The two above water reeled back as a large splash of water from between their crates erupted to the ceiling, almost dousing the lantern. The two ninja only had a moment to be confused and surprised by the splash before Sasuke had jolted out of the water and grabbed the hilt of the woman's sword. Instantly measuring the weight and balance of the sword, he spun around in a quick rotation, slicing the blade just below the man's ear level and returning to face the woman in front of him.

The woman's vision cleared as the water cascaded down around her, revealing Sasuke standing in front of her with her own blade held by him in a defensive stance. She didn't even have time to notice the upper half of her friend's gurgling head flop backwards while attached by only a thin flap of skin, before Sasuke abandoned his precautionary defence and struck out at her.

In an instant he rotated the blade down so it was parallel with his body and pointing straight at the ground, and struck upwards catching the woman beneath the armpit. The blade sliced cleanly through the chains for the armoured plates, as well as her flesh, bone, and tendons, sending the her arm spiralling out the door accompanied only by the ring of steel and a gout of arterial blood.

Sasuke stood and watched as she fell backwards off the crate and into the freezing water, her blood spraying out and staining the walls and ceiling as she tried to staunch the bleeding. He found it sickeningly amusing that the woman had not screamed and still wasn't, though her reasons he figured were more because of shock of having her arm cut off than not feeling the pain. Deciding play time was over, he reached into the water where she writhed through a combination of pain and struggling to breathe, and lifted her out by the front of her shirt. He watched her a few seconds as she hung there soaking wet and tearing, before he slammed her into the wall, "I have a few questions for you little girl, and if you want to stay upright, then you'll answer them fast."

Her head rolled to the side a bit, causing her to see the very fresh body of the man she had been arguing with. Her eyes hardened as she bit her lip to hold back the pain and looked Sasuke in the eye, "Why the hell would I help you, you bastard?" She shouted at him with a tear and blood streaked face. She vainly tried to kick at him, but barely had the strength to move her limbs.

"That would be the wrong answer." With a quick flick of his wrist, the sword twirled around in a downwards arc and severed the front three inches of her right foot. This time she attempted to scream but he simply forced his elbow up into her chin, closing her mouth and keeping her scream to more of a loud gurgle. "Would you like a second attempt at that question?"

She nodded vigorously against his arm until he pulled it away enough to let her speak, "You bastard." She cried, glancing over to the body of her friend again, driving home the very real idea that he could kill her before she even realised it.

"That's MR. bastard to you. Regardless though, are you going to answer those questions now?" He waited for a moment, wherein she nodded begrudgingly, "Good, now tell me where the pumping stations are?" He spoke with a commanding voice.

"Pumping what?" She looked confused, though between the blood and contorted expressions it was a little hard to tell.

"Pumping stations, drainage facilities, whatever the hell you call them? Places that use pumps to get water out of the facility."

She thought about what he was asking for a moment before it finally clicked into place. Looking at him disbelievingly she spoke softly, "You're trying to flood this place?"

He slammed her against the wall again, this time the audible crack of a rib accompanied her partial scream, "Answer the damn question. If you tell me what I need to know then I guarantee you'll be staying vertical."

"Okay, okay, there are two. One's in the southern section of the facility. I'm not sure where. The other is nearby. Turn left outside the door, then take the second left and follow it to the end of the hall." Having finally broken, she began crying heavily, "Now please don't hurt me anymore." She sputtered between gasps, allowing her head to droop low and tears to flow freely to the water below.

He waited, letting her cry for a few second before choosing to speak again, "That wasn't part of the deal girl, and I just said you'd stay vertical." Between sobs she looked up in a mixture of confusion and fear, only to see a glint of malice in his eye. In a single swift motion, he thrust the blade up into her abdomen just below her ribcage, and hammered it into the wall behind her. He stepped back and watched a moment as she stared down in mute horror at the blade through her torso. "I don't care if you are the lowest on the totem pole little girl, you all took something that mattered to me, so now you get to suffer the consequences." He reached into one of the waterproof containers on his weapon belt and withdrew an exploding tag. "Thanks for the help." He said casually as he slapped the tag on the woman's throat. "Goodbye."

A brief string of very loud and vulgar curses followed Sasuke as he stepped out of the room, shortly followed by a small explosion, then silence. As calm as though nothing had happened, he bent down and scooped up some water from around his legs and splashed it against his face causing bloody rivulets to drip down into the dark fabric of his shirt.

"Well that was refreshing. Two down and only a hundred or so left to go." He said coolly as he walked off in the direction she had told him.

Neji did not relish his job, but even he had to admit he was off to a good start. Using his Byakugan from a safe distance, he found that the west entrance was inside what appeared to be a small barn, where inside there was a downwards ramp leading to what appeared to be the main entrance of the facility. From the barn door to the first open area below it was about twenty meters of tunnel that was probably wide enough for four men to comfortably walk abreast. In the room at the end of the tunnel, there were six guards waiting around in front of a large iron door. Four of the men were arrayed around a small table with chairs where, while the remaining two were each armed with an arquebus and stood on obvious guard duty at the door.

Looking at the situation he pondered the best course of action, focusing on how it would be best to get close without alerting them. If they knew who he was before he could get to them then that tunnel was bound to be a deathtrap. It only took a minute before an interesting idea popped into his head; he only hoped that he could make for a passable actor.

Removing his forehead protector, he placed it in his weapons pouch and pulled his light cloak around himself tighter so that he was mostly covered. The thin material was thoroughly saturated and clung to his skin and clothing uncomfortably as he formed the seal for a henge. After a moment of channelling chakra and a brief puff of smoke, a slightly different Neji peered on. The henge did not change any of his physical features, but it covered the cursed seal to look like normal skin, changed his eye color to brown and concealed his weapon pouch. Now that his costume was in place, it was time to get the show on the road and to get out of the rain.

Taking off at a sprint, he ran towards the barn. He hadn't noticed if there had been any kind of electronic surveillance, but assuming there was, approaching cautiously would have him immediately found out.

The barn stood before him, maybe fifteen feet tall, with large, sliding double doors in front. He quickly grabbed the handle and slid it open, then ran into the semi dry confines of the barn. The insides were decrepit and unlit, but in the gloom he could make out the outline of a set of cellar stairs in the corner. Half acting, half serious, he pulled off his cloak and twisted it to wring it out while talking loudly to himself, knowing his voice would echo into the darkness below. "Damn rain, I can't even make it home with this."

He stood with the barn door open and stared out at the rain, letting some light filter into the small building while waiting for events to unfold. It took a few seconds before he could hear mumbled speech from the stairs, but continuing with the disguise of being a normal person, he did not react to the voices, or look around at the stairs that he already knew were there. About thirty seconds later the sound of lightly concealed footsteps coming up the stairs stirred his ears. He continued watching out the door to maintain his act, but mentally readied himself for the potential combat should they decide to just attack without asking questions. The footsteps echoed behind him as he could tell the distinctive low ring of a kunai being drawn, but still he chose not to react.

"What are you doing here?" A gruff man's voice pierced the silence, emphasized by the light pressure of the kunai blade pressing against Neji's back.

Intent on maintaining his disguise at least for the moment, he jumped slightly, and responded in his best stuttering, uncertain voice. Thankfully he had abundant observation material through the years of knowing Hinata that his voice was quite convincing. "I-I didn't d-do anything. P-p-please don't hurt me."

"If you answer properly and we determine you're not a threat we may. Now what are you doing here?"

"I-I've been t-traveling for hours in the rain a-and this place looked good to wait out the storm in." Even though it was an act, Neji felt utterly disgusted with himself for even mocking such obvious weakness. He could feel the man's eyes running over his back in search of something, probably weapons and unusual body language.

"Turn around kid." Neji could hear the man take a step back in anticipation of him turning around, but he delayed a second, fighting his rising urge to kill the man for calling him a kid. After a brief mental battle to maintain the act a little longer, he turned around at what he deemed was an appropriately slow pace for someone who should be afraid for their life. The man before him was incredibly non-threatening and on any normal day he would have laughed at him holding out a blade, he was thin almost to the point of anorexia, had dull black hair, and a very simple face. Again the man looked Neji over, and seeing nothing, he placed the kunai back in his pouch. "Follow me kid, we're gonna have to see what'll happen to you."

"Umm, okay." Neji said quietly, thankful that he only needed to keep it up until he was in the room below. Some wouldn't call being surrounded by enemies 'safety', but Neji always preferred it when his opponents were in easy reach. Seeming to accept the answer he was given, the man turned away and headed down the stairs that he had come up. Following close behind, Neji hoped that the obviously subpar ninja in front of him took him directly to the others at the gate.

There were only a few stone stairs before they let out into a wide and descending concrete tunnel heading straight. There was some mud inside but things were mostly dry and there were dispersed ceiling fixtures that shed enough light to see decently while they walked. It only took about thirty seconds before he stepped out of the tunnel into the largish room he had seen before with his Byakugan, the men had moved around a bit but everything else was still in the same location.

Neji gave the room a quick scan before the other men noticed their arrival. All the men were within about eight feet of the center of the room and though they all looked much healthier than the man who took him down here, none of them looked to be even a remote challenge. More than likely the guy who had 'acquired' him had simply drawn a short straw since none of them even seemed to carry themselves with the grace of a chunnin.

After several seconds of standing around, one of the men in front of the large metal door looked up and saw them. He walked over to them with his arquebus in hand and a curious look on his face, "So this would be our visitor I take it?" His voice was quiet and lightly slurred in the manner that only someone who grew up in the countryside could.

"Yeah," the man beside Neji responded, "just some kid that wanted to get out of the rain. Unlucky sort I suppose."

"Yeah, sorry kid. You stepped into something you shouldn't have." The man with the weapon looked over at him, looking authentically unhappy with what he was thinking.

"Oh, don't be." Neji responded calmly, secretly ecstatic that things were about to begin.

Both men looked at him oddly for a moment before the man who brought him down managed a rather dumbfounded, "Huh?"

"It's pretty simple actually, I didn't know what kind of surveillance you had and I didn't want to risk having to come down a straight tunnel with no cover, so plain as day with a stupid and rather simple ruse I made you to appear as no more than the monkeys you are. How unfortunate for you that you brought me here, oh well. Goodbye!"

The two men looked puzzled and surprised by a combination of Neji's large words and drastic change in demeanour. It only took a second for them to attempt to ready their weapons, while the other men in the room did nothing and barely even acknowledged the new man's presence. How unfortunate for them that none of them managed to reach their weapons before he began to turn.

"Nobasu Yari Kaiten!" Neji spun tightly on the spot, forming a sphere of chakra around himself and a thin hoop of energy around it at about his chest level that was no more than a quarter of an inch thick. After a fraction of a second, the hoop flared out, expanding to many times its original size and struck the far walls, scoring them two inches deep.

Silence followed as Neji skidded to a halt, looking over the room with his usual serene expression. The two men in front of him looked at him with silent screams and surprised expression, almost as though they were frozen in time.

Reaching forward, he tapped the gaunt man's forehead lightly, causing it to loll backwards. As the head rolled around, a seam appeared in the man's chest, peeling away just below the top two inches of shoulder and falling to the ground with a splatter of gore. His body followed shortly after, tumbling to the side and knocking over the second man who also split apart at the chest. Within seconds it became like a grotesque game of dominos as the other men fell to the ground in masses of blood and body parts.

Neji paced the room to make a quick survey of his work while letting his henge dissipate. No one was left alive and there was certainly no chance of revival should there happen to be a very good medical ninja in the facility.

With a nod of satisfaction at his work, Neji turned to the metal door that sported a thin yet deep scar from his attack. The door itself was two sliding iron slabs in indentations on the ground and ceiling that met in the middle and were locked together with a heavy bar. Deciding to be careful, he reactivated his Byakugan and examined the bar for any kind of additional lock or trap, apparently though, they had deemed the entrance was well guarded enough to leave the door without any extra defences on it. He chuckled to himself lightly in amusement as he lifted the large metal bar and dropped it to the ground with a heavy clang.

Neji didn't have time to so much as touch the door after dropping the bar, as both doors collapsed in on themselves at the point where he had cut into them. The thundering sound of hundreds of pounds of metal slamming down onto a stone floor echoed painfully in his ears and down the hall behind where the metal had previously stood. He grimaced staring into the now open hallway, seeing a straight path with dozens of doors and halls leading off in different directions. With an irritated sigh, he gave a final look around the room he was inside; peeking a few feet into the walls with his Byakugan to ensure there weren't any secret doors around. Once he was certain the room was secure, he reached into his weapons pouch and withdrew a handful of explosive tags and tossed them casually into the air behind him, allowing them to flutter to the ground randomly strewn about the area. Once all the tags had fluttered casually to the ground he again reached into his weapon pouch, but this time he withdrew only one tag as well as his forehead protector and tied the cloth comfortably back into place over his seal.

He glanced around at the many explosive notes now littering the floor and sighed. How he wished to be strategic about his use of them, but Hinata had expressly told him to be as loud as possible. Steeling himself and ignoring his better judgement of being more strategic with his tag placement, he waited with the spare tag at the ready. Glancing out into the hall, he tapped his foot impatiently. The noise from the collapsing door would attract attention very soon, so he hoped her signal would come soon, he really couldn't wait too long.

Ten seconds, he could hear some voices a ways down the hallway.

Twenty seconds, the voices were getting closer.

Thirty seconds, the ground shook as the sound of an explosion echoed back towards him.

"Finally!" He said to himself as he slapped the tag to the wall, channelling a touch of chakra into it and bolted off down the hallway. It was a few seconds before he felt another explosion rock the facility, shortly followed by the massive blast and vibrations from his own set of explosives.

After the facility finished shaking from the explosions, he regained his footing and turned back to make sure that his tags had properly blocked off the exit. A few seconds later he was pleased to see that the entire section had collapsed and so had most of the smaller side rooms in the area.

Turning back down the hallway, Neji closed his eyes and breathed deeply, taking in the foul air of the rooms and halls surrounding him. After a moment, he released the breath and looked down the hall in front of him with a morose expression, not commonly worn by the young Hyuga.

"Let the hunt begin."

She stared down the foreboding hole in the ground in front of her and shuddered. The cement lined pit leading down to her entrance was only two by two and a half feet wide with roughly a dozen rusted iron bars that she could see embedded into the side. She just hoped that all the bars that were out of sight were there and that when she got to the bottom she wouldn't have to freefall down to the hatch, and due to the poor light and depth of the offending pit, she couldn't even see how far down the trap door at the bottom was. Stepping back for a moment, she looked around at the location and concluded that the designers of this place must have been drunk when they made the plans for it. The tube leading to the entrance was at the top of a high hill, which was great to conceal it from people below, but it was adding several meters of unneeded vertical distance to get into the facility.

Taking a deep breath to steady her nerves, she stepped back over to the pit and looked down again, resolving to move despite not wanting to. Biting her lip to distract herself she slid one foot down, then the other. She stepped to the second wrung, then the third, the fourth, the fifth. By this point she was now far enough into the hole that it came up to just above her hips, and with the addition of thickness of Naruto's coat, she found that the confines of the tube began to feel uncomfortably small.

With a sigh she stepped down to the next wrung, feeling around until her foot made contact with the hard metal. As she shifted her weight to step down with the other one, the unpleasant sound of snapping metal chimed through the air as her support evaporated from beneath her, easily pulling her hands away from the wet metal wrung that she held.

The edge of the hole rushed past her head as darkness swallowed her for the duration of her surprisingly brief fall. After plummeting no more than 6 feet, she plunged straight into a bone chilling mass of water that rapidly climbed above her head. In panic she tried to flail her limbs in search of the wrungs to climb back out, but the confines of the tube mixed with her jacket tangling over her head caused her to do little more than expel precious air.

"Shit, this is not happening!" she mentally swore to herself, trying desperately to ascend to air amidst the tangled mass of her coat and the overly close walls. In her flailing, her foot smashed into something below her very hard, causing a swell of pain to rush into her. She grit her teeth, biting back the swearing that threatened to escape her lips in hopes to preserve what little oxygen she had left.

It was then that she experienced a truly odd sensation, suction, though this was a hundred times as powerful as what could be felt in a bathtub as it almost instantly drew her into the depths unknown. She vaguely saw the wall rush past her eyes before she was jettisoned out into open air, allowing the floor to welcome her some 10 feet below.

SPLASH!

Once again the water's cold embrace surrounded her as she lay floating on her back around a foot above the stone floor. Her coat lay pulled along with her arms above her head, a tangled mess, while her body screamed in response to the less than glorious, reverse belly flop that she had just performed. The ceiling spun menacingly in front of her eyes, laughing down at her misery and pain. Water continued to splatter down on her face from the spinning ceiling, but she chose to ignore it in favour of regaining her dignity and composure… and ability to see straight.

Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath and slowly exhaled, silently swearing to herself to never tell a soul about what just happened. She knew that even though she had been proving herself to her family for the last few weeks, there was no way any Hyuga would let her live down this humiliating entrance.

Loosing an exasperated sigh she stood up, adjusting her coat and opening her eyes, allowing them to adjust to the gloomy lighting now that the world around her had stopped spinning around her. With a quick scan of the area, she could see that she had fallen smack in the middle of a T-junction, but had evidently not drawn any attention since the halls were still and silent.

She moved beneath the hole again, allowing rain to drop down on her as it ran down the walls of the tube. The extra water falling on her went unnoticed since she was so thoroughly saturated and miserable already. At the base of the hole in the ceiling she could see the hatch bent straight down away from the opening, its hinge creaking ominously regarding its ability to close again. It was just above there that she saw poking out from the wall, some three feet above where the hatch had opened, the cause of her humiliating entrance and sore foot. A thick metal rod poked out from the wall that apparently acted as a release valve for the hatch when descending the ladder. It seemed that the rain had continued to build up inside the tube, so when she accidentally hit the rod, the weight of the water had forced open the hatch, dropping it all into the hallway below and throwing her around like a rag doll… a very wet rag doll.

With a heavy sigh, she reached into her sealed weapon pouch and retrieved 5 explosive notes. Channelling a small amount of chakra into her feet she walked up the walls to the ceiling and placed the tags in a pentagon around the hatch, leaving a good distance between them in hopes that when they went off, they'd take the hill down into the hallways. Once they were all placed and she had rechecked them, she charged one of them with her a little of her chakra and quickly dropped down to the ground.

The water splashed around her as she landed and took off at a sprint down the dim hallway away from the T-junction and in the direction of the center of the facility. Several seconds later, the rumbling sound of an explosion and several tons of rock and dirt shifting screamed from behind her, noisily informing her of a job well done. After a few more seconds, two other sequences of explosions echoed their way to her ears, causing a bitter smile to filter across her lips.

Stopping a moment, she took the time to look around the straight, dull hallway that she was currently in. Nothing about this place was welcoming, and since the second she had so less than eloquently arrived, she had hated it more and more and wanted nothing more than to leave. That however would have to wait until she was done.

Turning back down the hallway, she took off in the general direction of where she knew the holding area to be, she only hoped that she wasn't too late.

"I'm coming Naruto, please be alright."

Nobasu yari kaiten – Reaching spear rotation

Thanks for reading everyone, I hope you enjoyed the latest instalment. Sorry it took longer than I said to post, but it was a surprisingly difficult chapter to write. Hopefully the next couple will come out easier but unfortunately I can't make any guarantees. I will tell you this I will post the next chapter as soon as I can. Also, thanks for all your great reviews, and I look forward to reading more of them in the future.


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